From SHirsch at somervillema.gov Wed Jul 14 11:21:10 2010 From: SHirsch at somervillema.gov (Stephanie Hirsch) Date: Wed Jul 14 07:34:30 2010 Subject: [Mystic] Mystic Updates: Project Name, Grant Submission, FY11 Budget, Bylaws, Advisory Board, Data Sharing, Resident Outreach, and Tufts Fellows References: <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB3EAB60@exchange.somerville.ma.us> <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB07149736@exchange.somerville.ma.us> Message-ID: <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB3EAB8C@exchange.somerville.ma.us> Hello all - I am writing to update you on the progress of the Mystic Zone project. There has been quite a bit of legwork on the project since my last update. NAME: The Mayor's Office settled on the name Somerville Promise Alliance, which can be abbreviated to SomerPromise. I recognize that there was quite a bit of disagreement about the name. Some expressed concerns about using the word "promise" in the project's title because it reminded people and youth who discussed it of broken promises. However, others thought that the effort should accept the challenge that we will deliver on promises made. In the end, we picked a name that we thought would be persuasive to prospective funders and that captured the program's key concepts. I'm sorry in advance that the name didn't work for everyone and hope it'll grow on us all. FY11 BUDGET HEARING: The Mayor proposed the creation of the new Somerville Promise Alliance Department in his FY11 budget. The budget establishes two half-time positions, staffed by me and Damon Luloff. Because this fiscal year's budget was so constrained, it was virtually the only expansion in funding in the City's budget this year. The Board of Aldermen scrutinized the proposal and ultimately funded it. Given the significance of the investment in a new program in this painful budget year, we recognize the importance of moving quickly to carry out project goals to achieve the greatest impact for dollars spent on the program. GRANT PROPOSAL: Jayanthi Mistry and Mon Cochran spearheaded an extraordinary effort to complete Somerville's Promise Neighborhood application. A total of 339 communities submitted applications electronically competing for 20 grants to be awarded. The process of writing the proposal was grueling, but did help us think through how the project will proceed with or without Federal funding. A huge thank you goes to Jayanthi and Mon! BYLAWS: One of the next steps on our work plan is to set up the Somerville Promise Alliance Trust with the Boston Foundation. The distribution of funding through the Trust will be carried out in accordance with SomerPromise bylaws. We will be circulating a draft of these bylaws within the next few days for your feedback. After we incorporate your feedback, we will be presenting the bylaws to the Board of Aldermen and School Committee for their consideration and approval. The bylaws reflect governance-related decisions made by the Executive Steering Committee over the past six months. ADVISORY BOARD: The bylaws spell out a governance structure for administration of the Trust and for oversight for the project as a whole. Once the bylaws are approved, the current Executive Steering Committee will be dissolved and the new Advisory Board will be appointed, according to the process laid out in the bylaws. The two committees will have similar compositions, but the Advisory Board will include greater resident participation and leadership. PROVIDER NETWORK AND DATA SHARING: As you may remember, the proposed plan for FY11 for SomerPromise is to collect and combine service delivery data, analyze it to identify gaps in services, and meet regularly with key stakeholders to discuss strategies for closing gaps. In the past five months, we have piloted methods of collecting data from some of the Mystic non-profit providers and have shared with them some student-level School data. In the next few months, our data sharing efforts will be accelerating. The City has just sent award letters for its block grant public service funding, and 16 of the awarded providers have been asked to share data on their service delivery and to participate in regular discussions of data. We will be inviting these and other providers to participate in a meeting early in August to discuss initial data we have collected. If you are a provider, please keep an eye out for a poll on options for meeting dates/times. Also, Damon and Laura will be contacting each provider to talk about legal and technical tools for sharing data. At the August meeting, we plan to talk about initial indicators we could track to assess the well being of children in the Mystic neighborhood. To date, we have considered tracking attendance, after-school program enrollment, student achievement, and kindergarten readiness, however we look forward to getting feedback and learning as we go. We look forward to talking to you all soon. RESIDENT ENGAGEMENT EFFORT: While we plan to convene providers to discuss their data this summer, we are also working on convening residents to discuss data. Tufts PERIS Fellow Elizabeth Pufall is working with the staff of the Welcome Project to develop initial resident outreach efforts. As she and the Welcome Project staff refine their work-plan, we will share it with you all to solicit feedback. OTHER TUFTS' PERIS FELLOWS: Two other PERIS Fellows have been making great contributions to the SomerPromise effort. Abby Copeman is working with the Healey School principal and staff to run a kindergarten readiness program for Healey students who are entering kindergarten and have not had prior pre-K experience. Laura Tolkoff has been doing an amazing job working with Damon and me to prepare for our data sharing efforts and for the Donor Advised Fund. As always, please contact me with any questions or comments. Stay tuned for the draft bylaws and the proposed resident outreach work plan soon for your review. Stephanie Stephanie Hirsch Mayor's Office, Somerville Promise Alliance City of Somerville office phone: (617) 625-6600 ext. 2340 cell phone: (617) 512-4847 www.somervillema.gov -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.somerville.ma.us/pipermail/mystic/attachments/20100714/cefdfbe9/attachment.html From SHirsch at somervillema.gov Thu Jul 15 18:02:31 2010 From: SHirsch at somervillema.gov (Stephanie Hirsch) Date: Thu Jul 15 14:15:50 2010 Subject: [Mystic] Draft Leadership Development Plan - Share feedback by Monday, 5/18 References: <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB0714994F@exchange.somerville.ma.us> Message-ID: <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB3EAB98@exchange.somerville.ma.us> Skipped content of type multipart/alternative-------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Summer Canvass Plan.doc Type: application/msword Size: 28160 bytes Desc: Summer Canvass Plan.doc Url : http://lists.somerville.ma.us/pipermail/mystic/attachments/20100715/0f1f2123/SummerCanvassPlan-0001.doc From mica.pollock at gmail.com Mon Jul 19 07:15:55 2010 From: mica.pollock at gmail.com (Mica Pollock) Date: Mon Jul 19 03:30:15 2010 Subject: [Mystic] Draft Leadership Development Plan - Share feedback by Monday, 5/18 In-Reply-To: <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB3EAB98@exchange.somerville.ma.us> References: <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB0714994F@exchange.somerville.ma.us> <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB3EAB98@exchange.somerville.ma.us> Message-ID: Hi all -- Glad to see the development of this resident engagement work. We've learned a lot in the OneVille Project on relationships between Mystic families/Somerville families and schools, and about supports youth are telling us they need. We'd like to make a presentation on our work to the SomerPromise group in the fall, to support the ongoing data analysis. I've also asked that Elizabeth and Warren add a few questions about technology access and ownership to the survey. All the best, Mica On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 6:02 PM, Stephanie Hirsch wrote: > Hello all - > > As mentioned in the prior update e-mail, please find attached and pasted > below a proposed work plan for resident engagement activities that the > Welcome Project, with help from Tufts, plans to complete in the next few > weeks. > > Please take a minute to review the plan and provide any feedback or > questions to Warren by this coming MONDAY, JULY 18th. Warren's contact > information is: > > Warren Goldstein-Gelb > The Welcome Project > T: 617.623.6633 > F: 617.623.7189 > E: warren@welcomeproject.org > > I believe their proposed activities will be a great way to pilot some of > the ideas discussed during the planning months. In doing so, it should move > us the closer to increased resident engagement while also providing an > opportunity to reflect on what worked with that effort. > > Stephanie > > *************** > > UPDATE ON CANVASS/RESIDENT ENGAGEMENT PILOT AT THE MYSTIC HOUSING > DEVELOPMENTS > > This summer, The Welcome Project, with the assistance of Tufts University?s > Eliot Pearson Department of Child Development and Tisch College, is > conducting activities at the Mystic Housing Developments to gain resident > perspectives and build resident engagement in SomerPromise. The size and > scope of the project is NOT the complete census of all families at the > Mystic as originally discussed last fall, but a smaller focused pilot > project designed to: > > ?engage parents and youth of school-aged children at the Mystic Housing and > surrounding neighborhoods in the process and development of SomerPromise. > ?learn about resident perspective on the schools, on SomerPromise, and on > after-school programs (assets and barriers). > ?identify potential leaders (youth and adults) from among Mystic residents > who will become more actively involved in helping to shape SomerPromise. > > The specific activities we are doing to accomplish this are: > > ?Using our own Digital Stories Program for youth to engage youth by > focusing the curriculum on community issues that are important to them and > including education. Bilingual high school students in LIPS (Liaison > Interpreters Program of Somerville) are serving as teaching assistants. > ?Conducting focus groups and individual interviews with a small sample of > families. LIPS youth will serve as interpreters and facilitate interviews. > ?Conducting targeted door-to-door outreach, with LIPS youth as interpreters > and facilitators, to elicit resident engagement and simultaneously pilot a > survey that builds upon the survey initially developed by a field project > team from Tufts University?s Department of Urban and Environmental Policy > and Planning. > ?Working with the Mystic Providers Group to provide opportunities to learn > more about SomerPromise at the annual Mystic Picnic/BBQ on August 17. > > To conduct this work over an 8 week period, we have needed to receive > approval from Tufts University?s Institutional Review Board (IRB) for > research in the community (Side note: 5 LIPS students have been > IRB-certified and are now co-investigators on the project). Though the short > timeframe has made us move quickly, we welcome suggestions to focus group > follow up questions both for this summer?s pilot and for future work. If you > would like a copy of the survey or focus group questions(s), please contact > me or Elizabeth Pufall-Jones at epufall@yahoo.com. When we?ve completed > the pilot project this summer, we?ll share a report compiling data from each > set of data collection (door-to-door survey, focus group, Digital > Storytelling Program.) > > > _______________________________________________ > Mystic mailing list > Mystic@lists.somerville.ma.us > http://lists.somerville.ma.us/mailman/listinfo/mystic > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.somerville.ma.us/pipermail/mystic/attachments/20100719/40aa30e3/attachment.html From Dluloff at somervillema.gov Tue Jul 20 15:19:29 2010 From: Dluloff at somervillema.gov (Damon Luloff) Date: Thu Jul 22 07:08:22 2010 Subject: [Mystic] SomerPromise bylaws Message-ID: <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB07311F4A@exchange.somerville.ma.us> Hello Everyone, Based on the last steering committee meeting with input from the Mayor, we have drafted proposed by-laws for the SomerPromise Trust. The Trust would be the set up as a donor-advised fund through the Boston Foundation. The purpose of the Trust would be to distribute funds to projects that improve targeted outcomes for children and youth in Somerville. These funds would be raised primarily by the Mayor (although anyone could donate to the fund or raise money for it.) The bylaws describe how the Trust would be governed and operated. This includes: - the powers of the advisory board - the composition of the advisory board - how advisory board members would be selected - how conflicts of interest will be handled - the role and powers of the fund advisor - procedures relating to grantmaking from the trust - the role of the provider network The Boston Foundation has agreed to enforce these bylaws in their administration of the Fund so that no disbursements or other important decisions regarding the Trust could be made outside of the process described in the bylaws. No single party acting alone would have the power to change the bylaws or disburse funds. Please review the bylaws carefully and respond within the next week with your feedback. For your convenience, I've highlighted the parts of the bylaws that are non-boilerplate and particular to the SomerPromise Trust. If any significant revisions are suggested, we will make adjustments and notify you of those revisions. Next, the bylaws will be reviewed for approval by the Boston Foundation, the Board of Aldermen and the School Committee. If any revisions are made, we will share them with you. Once they have been approved by all parties, we will open the Trust with the Boston Foundation, the Mayor will begin funding the trust, the Trust Advisory Board will be nominated as specified in the bylaws, and we will convene the first meeting of the advisory board. Meanwhile, we will begin monthly meetings of the provider network. Hopefully, everything will be up and running by October. Again, please email me with your feedback on these bylaws by next Tuesday, July 27th. Thanks for all your time and energy in helping to get this off the ground. Damon ___ Damon Luloff Somerville Promise Alliance City of Somerville dluloff@somervillema.gov Office: (617) 625-6600 ext. 2341 Cell: (617) 417-2608 www.somervillema.gov -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.somerville.ma.us/pipermail/mystic/attachments/20100720/6e1b21cd/attachment-0001.html From Dluloff at somervillema.gov Tue Jul 20 15:33:00 2010 From: Dluloff at somervillema.gov (Damon Luloff) Date: Thu Jul 22 07:08:23 2010 Subject: [Mystic] SomerPromise bylaws - attachment Message-ID: <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB07311F68@exchange.somerville.ma.us> Skipped content of type multipart/alternative-------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: SomerPromise Fund Governance By-Laws Draft-7-20-10.doc Type: application/msword Size: 102400 bytes Desc: SomerPromise Fund Governance By-Laws Draft-7-20-10.doc Url : http://lists.somerville.ma.us/pipermail/mystic/attachments/20100720/0056998e/SomerPromiseFundGovernanceBy-LawsDraft-7-20-10-0001.doc From SHirsch at somervillema.gov Fri Jul 23 12:29:06 2010 From: SHirsch at somervillema.gov (Stephanie Hirsch) Date: Fri Jul 23 08:42:21 2010 Subject: [Mystic] FYI: Organizational SomerPromise Provider Network Meeting - Please indicate availability Message-ID: <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB0748C34E@exchange.somerville.ma.us> Hello all - Please see below for a note on scheduling the first SomerPromise Provider Network meeting. All providers should have received this e-mail already, though if you didn't, please let know. All are welcome at the meeting, though the discussion will focus primarily on the work and data of providers. If you would like to attend, please indicate your availability on the doodle poll below. Thanks! Stephanie _____________________________________________ From: Laura Tolkoff On Behalf Of Stephanie Hirsch Sent: Friday, July 23, 2010 12:26 PM To: 'Mystic-nonprofit@lists.somerville.ma.us' Subject: Organizational SomerPromise Provider Network Meeting - Please indicate availability Dear Somerville service provider, We are contacting you because you have been involved in the planning process for the Mystic Zone project (now called Somerville Promise Alliance) and/or because you received FY2011 Community Development Block Grant funding from the City. We invite you to attend the first Somerville Promise Alliance (SomerPromise) Service Providers meeting. Please follow to the link below in order to tell us your availability for this meeting, the venue for which is TBD. Feel free to send another representative from your agency if that is more convenient. Below the poll link is some background on the project and some information on our first meeting. http://www.doodle.com/ai7wm5csc8mc6uur BACKGROUND ON SOMERPROMISE PROVIDER NETWORK: The SomerPromise Provider Network was conceived of during a planning process that occurred over the past 10 months. During that time, a large group of stakeholders met regularly to develop a plan to replicate the Harlem Children's Zone model in Somerville (See http://www.hcz.org/ for more information). The planning group concluded that a Zone effort in Somerville should focus on coordination and expansion of existing providers to address service gaps. According to the plan approved by the project's Executive Steering Committee, consolidated school and provider data and feedback from residents will drive decision-making. The initial focus is Mystic Housing Development neighborhood. To facilitate coordination, the SomerPromise program will establish the SomerPromise Provider Network, initially made up of organizations that serve the Mystic neighborhood. The Network will meet monthly to discuss data and brainstorm ways to address gaps in services or needs that the community expresses. The Network will make recommendations on how to close service gaps to an Advisory Board composed of representatives from each key stakeholder group. The City will solicit funding and will deposit funds in a Trust established with the Boston Foundation. The Advisory Board will use recommendations from residents and providers to determine how to distribute funds to close service gaps. Detailed data will be collected on the strategies tried to determine what works. PLANS FOR INITIAL PROVIDER NETWORK MEETING: At our organizational meeting, we will provide a short introduction to SomerPromise and a recap of what has happened since the last Executive Steering Committee meeting in May. We will discuss existing data and possible performance measures for pre-K children, children grades K-8, and high school students. We look forward to your participation in this discussion, which will help us to understand how to develop and best meet these goals as a network. Finally, we will discuss the logistics of data sharing, including privacy-related law and protocol and technology tool options. Thank you and I look forward to seeing you in the next few weeks. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Stephanie Hirsch Stephanie Hirsch Mayor's Office, Somerville Promise Alliance City of Somerville office phone: (617) 625-6600 ext. 2340 cell phone: (617) 512-4847 www.somervillema.gov -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.somerville.ma.us/pipermail/mystic/attachments/20100723/ca2f3239/attachment.html From SHirsch at somervillema.gov Wed Jul 28 12:12:51 2010 From: SHirsch at somervillema.gov (Stephanie Hirsch) Date: Wed Jul 28 08:25:55 2010 Subject: [Mystic] Save the Date: Provider Meeting, Monday, August 2nd, 12-2pm Message-ID: <05E737CD9BF1C7479D7F1A4A881272EB0748CAE9@exchange.somerville.ma.us> Hello Mystic stakeholders - Sorry for those of you who are receiving this in duplicate, but please see below for information about the upcoming organizational SomerPromise Provider Network meeting. Please feel free to sit in if you are interested. We will send an agenda and a note about the location on Friday. Thanks, Stephanie ________________________________ From: mystic-nonprofit-bounces@lists.somerville.ma.us [mailto:mystic-nonprofit-bounces@lists.somerville.ma.us] On Behalf Of Damon Luloff Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 2:52 PM To: mystic-nonprofit@lists.somerville.ma.us Subject: [Mystic-nonprofit] Save the Date: Provider Meeting, Monday,August 2nd, 12-2pm Dear Providers, We hope you had a nice weekend and are staying cool. Thank you for your quick responses to the Doodle Poll we sent last week. Please save the date for the first Provider Network Meeting, which will be held Monday, August 2nd from 12pm-2pm. We will determine the location as soon as possible and hope to let you know by Friday morning. If you are unable to attend the meeting, please make sure that a representative from your organization is able to attend. On Friday, we will send to you an agenda and two Memoranda of Agreement about data sharing. Please bring to the meeting with the signatures from the appropriate person who is authorized to sign for your organization. If you cannot attend Monday's meeting, please sign the Memoranda and make sure that the staff member who will attend in your place will bring them to the meeting or send an electronic copy to dluloff@somervillema.gov. Thank you and please do not hesitate to contact us with questions or concerns. Stephanie Hirsch, Damon Luloff, and Laura Tolkoff (617) 625-6600 Stephanie x2340 Damon x2341 Laura x2342 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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