Orange County NC Website
Orange County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council Meeting <br /> Friday, December 7, 2018 (12:00noon—2:OOpm) <br /> Southern Human Service Center <br /> Chapel Hill,NC <br /> Proposed Minutes <br /> Attendees: Bernard Miles, Tina Sykes, Maren Hardin, Peggy Hamlett, Stephanie Jones, Sharron <br /> Hinton, Carol McClelland, Kysha Thompson, Gayane Chambless,Jay Cole, Amanda Farris, <br /> Amy Kirshner, Val Hanson, Lia Kaz, Linda Boldin, Tami Pfeifer, Susan Worley, Kelsey Mosley, <br /> Coby Kansen Austin,Angela Clapp, Raquelle Hawkins, Pamela Weiden, Denise Briggs, Rebekah <br /> Rapoza(*Members in Bold) <br /> Absent: Charlos Banks, Megan Johnson, Jaime Lescinski, Dana Graves, Beverly Scarlett, Nick Allen, <br /> Excused.• Sherita Cobb, Matthew Hinton, Donna King, Lee Barnes, Meg McGurk <br /> Welcome <br /> The meeting opened with a welcome from Chair, Bernard Miles, and introductions. <br /> Guest Speaker—Family Success Alliance (Coby Kansen Austin& Angela Clapp) <br /> About four years ago Orange County identified working on poverty as a priority and the Health <br /> Department stepped up and said that education, housing, employment all affected the population level <br /> downstream. The looked to the Harlem Children Zone model as a way to structure their approach. <br /> The model follows children from cradle to college/career and is structured within"zones". In order to <br /> determine which zones to target,the Health Department looked at data on where Medicaid and <br /> Housing Choice Voucher(for example) recipients lived and created an index of six zones where <br /> families struggling to make ends meet would most likely live. An advisory council was appointed by <br /> the county commissioners that worked with those six communities to identify a champion and then <br /> selected two zones to work with. The two zones selected were: Zone 4 (Gateway community to out <br /> Hwy 70 east towards Durham County line) and Zone 6 (in-town Chapel Hill and Carrboro <br /> encompassing some more affordable market rate apartments and public housing). The first program <br /> launched was a kindergarten readiness program that is 4 weeks and based at the elementary school for <br /> rising kindergarteners with the first cohort starting four years ago. The next program launched was the <br /> Navigator program which included hiring people from the community who had the lived experience of <br /> struggling to make ends meet, had learned themselves how to navigate the systems, and already had <br /> built trust and relationships within their respective community. The Navigators then started working <br /> with the parents and families of the children in the readiness program. There are currently four cohorts <br /> —kindergarten, first, second, and third graders. Even though the kids in the cohorts are elementary <br /> school aged,the Navigators are working with the whole family which often includes older siblings. <br /> Minutes Review and Approval <br /> The Council reviewed the minutes from October 2018. Carol McClelland motioned for minutes to be <br /> approved and was seconded by Gayane Chambless. Motion carried unanimously. <br /> Agency Roundtable <br /> Wrenn House—Currently has one youth in care from Orange and has had a total of five. Just <br /> completed federal monitoring and it went well with just some minor things that need to be addressed. <br /> They are still working on the last of the needed renovations for the house and should be completed by <br /> end of the fiscal year. <br />