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City Council - 05/20/1997 - Workshop APPROVED MINUTES CITY COUNCIL/STAFF WORKSHOP TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1997 6:30 PM, HERITAGE ROOM IV 8080 Mitchell Road COUNCILMEMBERS: Mayor Jean Harris, Sherry Butcher- Younghans, Ronald Case, Ross Thorfinnson, Jr. and Nancy Tyra-Lukens CITY COUNCIL STAFF: City Manager Carl J.Jullie, Assistant City Manager Chris Enger, Recreation Supervisor Lyndell Frey and Council Recorder Jan Nelson I. CALL MEETING TO ORDER Acting Mayor Tyra-Lukens called the meeting to order at 6:45 p.m. Mayor Harris was absent. II. PRESENTATIONS BY LORI GERVAL, ACTING COORDINATOR FOR THE ASSET BUILDING COMMITTEE, AND LYNDELL FREY, RECREATION SUPERVISOR FOR THE CITY OF EDEN PRAIRIE Lori Gerval, Acting Coordinator for Building Assets Together reviewed the concept of asset building and the results of the survey done in Eden Prairie in November 1996 by Search Institute with 1100 kids in grades 7 and 9-12. Case asked if there is a national average for the area of positive family communications. Gerval said there is no breakdown comparison available. Case suggested there may be a difference between perception and reality, especially with kids of this age group, and asked how we get beyond their perception. Butcher- Younghans thought their perception is still valid. Gerval thought the most important thing is doing something about it and addressing the perception of the youth. Lyndell Frey, Recreation Supervisor, said he is interested in how we can use the 40 assets as a tool. It takes the entire community to do it, and they plan to share the information with Staff, Commissions and Boards. He reviewed how three of the current programs fit into the asset building concepts. They plan to share the information with the various Athletic Association Boards so they can incorporate some of the concepts in their programs. Frey said the Police Department does a wonderful job of working with kids and supporting the programs. They also want to go out to corporations to provide information on ways they can build assets in kids. He said they are open to ideas from the Council for ways to implement the information in the City. CITY COUNCIU/STAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES May 20, 1997 Page 2 Tyra-Lukens said it is valuable to hear this and to think about how we can do a better job at addressing the issues. She thought it was a wake-up call to learn that, as a City, we came out average on the scale. Gerval said they have a group of 60 people on their mailing list that represents a broad cross section of the community. They looked to see who would be the best target audience and decided to hit four areas. The first is building a broad-based awareness of the information by communications about Building Assets Together. They have a communication subgroup that is identifying opportunities to communicate what they are doing. In addition, they are going to address three basic audiences--families, youth organizations and youth athletics, and businesses. They are developing a marketing program to hit their target audiences. Gerval said they have started a "Random Acts of Kindness Fund" and are working with the schools to acknowledge kids. She said they are emphasizing the point that it is not just people with kids that have a responsibility. Enger asked what the goal is for the program. Gerval said they want to move from the current average of 20.9 assets per kid to 31-40 assets. We need to look at what opportunities we have with our current activities and where we need to build. Butcher-Younghans said it would be interesting do another survey in the future to see what we can really touch because she thought there are some areas we may never increase. Gerval said she didn't know of any places that have retested because the concept is very new. There will be a Channel 4 Dimension report tonight that may make some of the concepts more tangible. Tyra-Lukens asked who provided the funding. Gerval said Lutheran Brotherhood provided the funding for testing and scoring. Tyra-Lukens then asked if there are plans to retest. Gerval said it is probably too early to know, but they would like to see that done. Thorfinnson said there are huge concepts to deal with here, and we don't know which kids need which assets. He thought the task is overwhelming. We might be able to tweak our activities somewhat but we don't know what they need. Gerval said it is an on-going thing--you are never done. Thorfinnson thought there will need to be an action plan and they will have to determine which things to work on. Gerval noted an important part of the process is building awareness. Butcher-Younghans thought we all need to have our consciousness raised about giving positive feedback. Case thought it will be great to use as a tool to raise the awareness of providers, but he thought some of the numbers will always come out the same. CITY COUNCIL/STAFF WORKSHOP MINUTES May 20, 1997 Page 3 Frey thought we can look at our programs to see how we can do better in light of building assets and helping kids grow more. Gerval said they have two high school seniors on their committee, and they hope to get them involved. Jullie asked if there is any analysis of different grade groups. Gerval said they look at trends without looking at detail. Jullie thought it would be meaningful if, for instance, the younger kids were stronger in one area. Case said he would like to see some statistics on the various ages. Gerval said they have applied for grant money for communication materials. Tyra-Lukens thanked Gerval and Frey for their presentation. IV. OTHER BUSINESS IV. ADJOURNMENT Acting Mayor Tyra-Lukens adjourned the meeting at 7:25 p.m.