Overall: It felt like we took some giant steps forward this month in relationships with future partners. Still – no dull moments and God is good.

Meetings this Month:
Fairbanks Chamber We were introduced on 3/13
Arctic Alliance
Arctic Alliance’s Interior Delegation meetings
Fairbanks Housing and Homeless Coalition
FHHC’s Youth Focus Group of which I have been asked to chair,
Fairbanks Rescue Mission: Sarah and I continue to attend weekly staff meetings,
Family to Family This is for OCS partnering agencies,
Brown Bag Quarterly for Professionals working with children,
Choose Respect Rally in Golden Heart Park,

Contacts: Personal meetings with key people

1.) Office of Children’s Services, with Sarah Alden – #2 in command, Yuri  who is head of licensing, & Luvenia Rogers –Transition Specialists,
This was a break through meeting. It felt like we made the leap from not being at the table to at least being recognized. They even suggested that Luvenia have an onsite office at our location! Yuri had a number of suggestions for improving success.

2) Camille, ED of Fairbanks Counseling & Adoption
This also felt like a break through meeting. We found common ground on many subjects that pertain to children and we were invited to join FCA over at SOAP. This meeting also lead to #4, below.

3) Polly, Interim ED for North Star Youth Court, This meeting was just a God thing. I sat next to her at an Interior Delegation meeting at the LIO. We had never met before. She is an Athabascan from Tok. When everybody left – we continued to talk for an hour. She is getting her masters in Justice and studied with a group in Canada last summer whose specialty is family conferencing. She really wants to expand family conferencing and offer more reconciliation.

4) Jana, the new Director of Fairbanks Counseling and Adoption’s SOAP (Street Outreach and Advocacy Program) This was also very productive. Jana is new to SOAP and we had never met. We discussed working closely with each other in the future. I am very hopeful.

5) We joined the Downtown Association – free to nonprofits –

Trainings:
1. Developing A Framework For Ending Youth Homelessness  – a free Webinar

2. Darkness to Light by Stewards of Children – a 3 hour training in the prevention of child abuse. $40.00 (All of our staff will eventually have this training)

3. World Café: We were invited to lead the last Winter World Café for Teens at Joel’s Place on 3/27. They gave us the topic: youth homelessness. It was one of the first warm days and the kids were outside & not interested in coming in. However, we ended up having some excellent conversations with partnering agency reps that we had not seen in a long time – so all was not lost.

4. Future Trainings: I believe it would benefit us if I could spend time at Covenant House and/or Juneau Youth Services for some time this summer. I have been thinking about this, and then it was suggested. These could be expensive – air miles and/or driving with hotel. I think I would have a free place to stay in Anchorage.

Donations & Fundraising & Opportunities in the community:

1. We were awarded a $1000.00 Altruistic Gift from the Alaska Alpha Delta Kappa,
2. No monthly donations were received in March,
3. April: Dolly Caswell’s Presentations, Human Trafficking, has been a good experience for how much time something can take. It is amazing how many emails this has generated.
4. May: The GSA student group at UAF is helping us with a May clothing drive up at the University. When students leave the dorms – there is an opportunity for us . . .
5. We have made plans at this time to have a tent at
   * Farmer’s Market: most Wednesday’s & a few Saturdays, June-August
   * Downtown market: every other Monday, June – Sept.
6. We would like to sell Rosettes and coffee – but more than that – talk to people about FYA and what we are doing and let folks get to know us– and add them to our list serve.  It is critical that we develop our friend base
7. June: Clucking Blossom
8. July: Angry, Young, & Poor
9. September: We have yet to meet with Shane – but he thinks we should have a city-wide youth group  – sleep out – to raise awareness on this issue.
10. November:
    * We had talked about Street Monologues in November. However, I am having second thoughts. Both Rodney and Linda suggested the timing (trying to get everything ready for opening) could be hard. Events take a lot of time – so we need to think this one out carefully. I like the idea of doing it in November – but this might be best if someone else could head this up and I am out of the picture.
    * Candle light -Vigil –
    * Open House put donation cans out. He said, we could raise $ and it would be way easier.
11. Winter 2013: Project Run-A-way: We are thinking that this could be our annual fundraiser. We are looking at the months of February or March.

City of Fairbanks & Community Development Block Grant
The city was awarded this grant. Patrick & I met with city official, Patrick Smith to have some initial conversation about the project. That same day, I walked Patrick Smith through the house.

Staffing: As mentioned in the last staff mtg., I’m looking at alternatives for staffing for several reasons. Rodney brought up looking at missionaries – new idea. I called 2 young friends, Luke & Courtney, who serve through Innerchange to the street youth in San Fran. They thought this project sounded very appealing and felt that we would have no problem finding 2 couples. BUT they strongly suggested we discuss this as a board and formulate what we are really after. I have begun researching. I know what I don’t want to see.

My Hours: I am trying to work from home on Mondays and Fridays. This gives me a chance to have longer uninterrupted time. Tuesday – Thursday I am in town and usually driving about. I think one of the most important thing I can do right now for FYA is build relationships.  So – lots of time and energy going in this direction.