Planning and Operations / Program Development

1. Thank you for the part time person. We hired Kris Jones to work 3 nights a week (12:00 midnight to 8:00 a.m.) Our “house guests” as we call the youth, have thanked us for hiring a “dude”.
2. Shelter Report:
   1. 33 different youth, 15-21, accessed the shelter since it opened.
   2. We have been averaging between 6-9 youth a night
   3. Volunteers: We have had 34 volunteers donate 1060 hours since December 1. That breaks down to 60 overnight shifts and 100 check-in shifts.
   4. We had a very sad event. One of the youth staying with us was the youth you have read about in the paper who died from a gunshot to the head. We have been in contact with the Troopers as we had our personal observations to contribute, and we still have his personal belongings.
3. 138 Tenth:
   1. GVEA: got a call – no meter change though it had been plugged in. Jeff B went with me to the house and we checked – breakers on and cords plugged in. Called GVEA again – they sent someone to the meter. The lever was not flipped at the meter. Dave Bates went to the house and flipped the meter lever. I assume this was the issue – have not heard from them other wise.
   2. Margarita Bell, my city contact informed me that essentially the engineers report suggests that the foundation cannot support a building. ??? The city’s response: “I have been informed that the engineer’s report will not change the overall strategy.  We are planning to proceed as planned with an additional step to reinforce the foundation.”
   3. The timeline for housing is still the same: April – May tear it down, construction over the summer, occupy it in October – provide shelter in November.
4. Have been making a few inquiries regarding this population that we are serving, that is a subset of the population we are really targeting. . .
   1. 18-21 year olds could technically be at the mission. We don’t want to fill The Door with this population – it is not what they need and we told the community we were here for 12-17 year olds.
   2. in light of this – I met with a team from Access Alaska to discuss other possibilities. We are meeting the next time at the end of March. We are exploring talking to the Rasmussen foundation  – and possibly keep the shelter going – or design a transition program for the 18-21 year olds.
5. Missionary position (House Parents) has been listed on several free websites for now.
6. We are officially getting food from the community food bank now – what we can get is not very dependable – but Nicole shops 1-2x a week.
7. The Fairbanks Rescue Mission is doing our laundry – for now – weekly in their commercial size washers. This is a huge help and donation of time and resources to us. We wash approximately 20+ blankets every week and towels. We dont wash personal items or garments.

Public Relations & Communications

1. PIT Point In Time count event 1/26. This event titled “IN FROM THE COLD” was an FHHC event that we hosted with FPC’s permission, in the church. Afternoon training and count, evening with 4 bands, poetry reciting, free pizza and chili and resources in the community – lots of volunteers – free hair cuts, etc. It was a 12 hour day for Sarah and I, but good. We had as many as 65 people for the concert And we got at least 2 new youth coming. We hope to host this yearly if possible.
2. Clear Channel Media: We recorded a new Interior Scope + new PSA (link them up) Tim Palmer has been very helpful. Clear Channel, Perry, has given us free – space for our PSA on the normal paid advertising spots. I also sent around the PSA to other radio and tv channels. Has anyone heard/seen them?
3. Nicole met with the leadership from First Presbyterian. “Session” meets once a month and they wanted an update on the shelter. Nicole represented us at the meeting,  while I was gone.
4. Bus advertising: the FNSB ended up donating their normal charges. The Frontier Mediactive Group also donated their contributions. Auto Trim Design cut 20% off the production costs which left a bill of $165 after splitting it in half with Safe Pace. This would have cost $6000 dollars to put signs up on every bus for the year.
5. Unitarian Universalist Fellowship: 1/13/2013 I spoke during the Sunday service.
6. UAF groups: Sarah attended the UAF Volunteer Fair, spoke with UAF Social Work students and UAF Radio/Student person.
7. First United Methodist  – Sunday School Focus on Hunger. They will be collecting nonperishable food items for the shelter in the month of March.
8. Meeting fairly regularly with Rhema/JPSafe Place, James Menaker from Joel’s Place & Jeff Cimmerman from FCA/SOAP. Lately, discussions have been focused on outreach.
9. Arctic Alliance: I was asked to provide the group with a 5-10 minute update on how the overnight shelter is going. Approximately 25 people were in attendance representing human service providers here in Fairbanks.
10. Quarterly newsletter will be going out the first of March.
11. Attended Chamber 2/26 and “incidentally” – made two great connections. Introduced myself to Trevor Storrs with the Alaska Children’s Trust. We had emailed a few times but nice to touch base. Also – sat next to a young woman who has started her own grocery purchasing business – and wants to contribute to our program. But she also has a story to tell – she was homeless at 17.
12. Signature FYA Thank you Cookie – We have a willing volunteer/ chef who is looking to help and we are exploring this idea with her. Every month we would like to deliver a thank you Cookie or cookies with FYA or the Ykids on them – to those we want to thank but cannot do it publicly etc.

Finances / Fiscal Oversight / Grant and Contract Management

1. We submitted the Basic Homeless Assistance Program (BHAP) for $187,000 and the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) for 23,000  on February 8th to Alaska Housing Finance Corporation. The BHAP was for salaries for all activities and the ESG was for utilities for The Door.
2. Alaska Community Foundation:
   Am looking to submit a competitive grant to the ACF for Two weeks of training this fall for employees and regular volunteers
   “Grant awards will support professional staff and board of directors in their effort to access tools, develop practical skills and cultivate support systems needed to effectively achieve the organization’s mission. Grants will fund activities that allow organizations to build capacity in the areas of leadership development, organizational development, program development, collaboration and community engagement, and evaluation of effectiveness.”

Fundraising / Donor Development

• New donors this year so far:

Alyeska Pipeline: $1000.00   (This is from the ASK in November)
Alpha Delta Kappa, Zeta $100
Brian Rogers & Sherry Modrow
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW –  ($250.)(This is also from the ASK in November)
North Star Community Foundation $1500.00 (Pass the Hat donation)
Santa’s Letters and Gifts $100
Wattum, Kathleen

• Friends Church:
  This was the art show that was scheduled to happen Dec. 5, then in January, then set up for 2/23/13. Unfortunately – we were not notified about the final date officially, but learned about it when Jon Wall called a few days before I left and asked to borrow some doors from the shelter for the event – I asked if a new date had been set – and he thought we had been told.

• Credit Union 1:

This call came while I was on vacation. They had been looking us over for awhile and really had 1 main question – what are we going to do if the shelter structure does not get built by November 1. They contacted us via shelter phone Tuesday – wanting to meet with someone on Thursday. Niki and Sarah met with them and answered their questions. This is their report:

They’re really interested in helping now, because they want to be part of the start up.  They want to be able to say, years from now, that they helped us get on our feet.  I think they’re hoping we put things in the shelter with what they give us – furniture, art, whatever.

Last year, they raised over $7000 for IAC.  The year before it was $6000.  The Rescue Mission says they’ve picked them in the past, and that they’re legit & awesome.

They would like you to speak at the event (probably May 23rd, 6-8pm, but they’ll let us know) and want us to invite our staff & volunteers.  It’ll be a silent auction & is catered by Lavelles.  All donations are matched by the credit union, so if they raise $3000 at the event, we get $6000 – which is cool.

• Revive the Red Tent: (I will be meeting with RTRT next week to discuss this)
  You may remember that we had wanted to do something like Alice in the Underground – but really just wanted a time when young people’s stories could be told. Our very own VISTA Sarah put stories together about the same time we ran into someone from the RTRT who encouraged us on in the writing. Then as they read it – they became very excited about it and wanted to do it. Originally they offered to do it all and get most the proceeds over a set amount. Sarah has been handling all the communication with this group – but next week I will jump in for discussions involving $$.

1. Feb-May: RTRT is choreographing and writing/splicing the pieces to create the ‘show’
2. May-July: RTRT casts 3-4 teenagers and creates shows with them.
3. July: Show is performed.

Anna from RTRT says:

“Something you might want to talk about with the Board is how financially we’re going to split the show. RTRT is a little poor right now (“The Luxury of Suffering”, while a fantastic show, was not exactly a cash cow) and we would need to keep some of the funds from the show for ourselves. I think we can pitch it as highlighting this joint project between FYA and RTRT and we can talk about what we would feel a reasonable split would be. (I would lean towards 75% RTRT and 25% FYA.)”

Human Resources / Staff and Volunteer Development

1. Staff Handbook: still working on this. Patrick and Marylee teleconferenced in with the Foraker group regarding legal review of the handbook documents upon completion. Rebecca with Foraker will do a first review of the document and then pass it back to us to send on to a lawyer for a final review.
2. Volunteer Handbook – is nearly done
3. Taking on an intern from UAA School of Nursing – she will help out at night sometime but is also looking for a project to help us with.
4. Equipping:
   1. Volunteer Training Quarterly and monthly
      1. Each month we offer a training at the shelter. It can be a video or written article – staff and volunteers view or read – then respond. They do this over their shift. We track who has done what. This will be something the state will expect of us – so we are doing it now.
      2. Quarterly we offer a face to face training. March 23rd is our next face to face training.
   2. Staff Training
      1. I attended a 2 day Mental Health First Aid class at Fairbanks Community Behavioral Health. It was excellent.
      2. Feb 27 – March 1 in Anchorage: Youth Outreach Training. I used Miles from CC’s credit card + staying with friends for free; FYA will pay for car rental and will keep receipts for meals.
      3. Nicole and I are going to take the North Star Youth Court Mediation course in March (a 16 hour training) here in town. We feel this will be an important tool in the future.
   3. Staff issues:
      1. We are working through all the growing pains of a new place. Compounding this is the lack of time we have with each other. Each night staff are paired with volunteers but not each other. Niki works with each staff member at least 1x a week but that is not the same as 4 people meeting simultaneously. Niki and I talk and email frequently – but we both wish we had more time with the two others who are hourly.
      2. We try to have a “staff meeting” every Thursday at the shelter 9-midnight. This is successful only to the degree that we are answering the doorbell, etc. and answering “where’s the. . . can I have a . . . .”  We have not had a meeting for awhile – due to multiple reasons . . . and I see this is also an issue.

Board Development / Relations / Governance

1. Bank Paperwork: we need both Jeff and Nicole to become signers,
2. Insurance: We now have Directors and Officers insurance and a policy that covers all of our volunteers.