White Out Night 2011

White Out Night 2011, a set on Flickr.

If you see a group of people wandering around Main Street tonight, it most likely will be the Middletown Substance Abuse Prevention Council and students from MHS' Dragons In Action and WWMS' Rams In Action. We may even be joined by some friends from Middnight on Main, since we're asking for people to have a safe New Year and they're providing a great way to have one. Wave, smile, or lend us a friendly honk if you see us.

Above are some pictures of Dragons In Action preparing for the event.

DIA YLS Wrap Party

DIA YLS Wrap Party, a set on Flickr.

Members of our Dragons In Action group met with the Middlesex United Way's Young Leaders Society and Macdonough Elementary staff to help wrap presents for the YLS' first ever toy drive. Over 170 toys were donated and wrapped and sent out throughout the City to three local schools and to Parks and Rec.

Asset Message of the Week - "The Ask"

Some of you know that I’m involved with a “Young Leaders” group based out of the Middlesex United Way. As we were planning a social event for December someone offered the idea of tying it to a toy drive. Since the group has only been around for a handful of months we really tempered our expectations. As it turned out, we shouldn’t have. The event was able to collect around 170 toys and helped a number of local toy distribution efforts achieve their goals while even getting through their waitlists too. What we found is that each person in the group went to their jobs and let others know they were looking for toys and in they came. One member from Wesleyan put together a flyer connected with a day of athletic events on campus and brought in 60 toys just through the university staff and students. Another who works in Bethel, CT, a good 45 minutes away from our community, sent out an email and the next day found toys on her desk when she came into work.


To me, the take away from this is around “the ask”. So much good can be done but sometimes we’re afraid to ask or think that it may be too much work or more often than not we assume people will just say no.

This doesn’t just go for toy drives or even asking adults to participate in something…it also is connected to the way we utilize our young people in a community. Sometimes we take for granted their desire to help others or to be involved, whether it’s something random around the house or in the community. In the six years in this job, I’m continually surprised by how willing our teens are to get involved. Regardless of background or appearance they say yes; some of the kids who I thought were the least likely to participate are the ones that are the most surprised and eager when asked. Even with this toy drive, we held a wrapping party and asked members of our youth leadership group to participate and sure enough we had 10 students there that day with members of the Young Leaders and Macdonough staff. Some of the teens I had expected to be there, but several others I did not and they all had a blast.

With the craziness of the holidays staring us in the face, take a step back and see if you can identify one or two things to include a young person. It might be baking, it might be wrapping, it might be watching the game with you. But the key is “the ask” because we will never know what might happen unless we try.

Have a happy, healthy, and safe holiday weekend.

Thanks for all you do.

Asset Message of the Week - Survey Reflections

Last week, we went through the process of resurveying Middletown youth using the Search Institute’s Profiles of Student Life survey. The administration of the survey which reached out to approximately 2,200 students in grades 7-12 (including Adult Education) went extremely smoothly and a lot of that is due to the work of school system staff and administration. Additionally, feedback we’ve received has been really strong around how seriously the students took filling out the survey. The previous two week’s really have been a whirlwind (see our blog post on all the preparation here: http://middletownyouthservices.blogspot.com/2011/12/week-of-survey-preperation.html)  and we really appreciate all the partnerships needed to pull off all this work.


Now that the smoke has cleared, we really have the opportunity to reflect on how a survey of this nature generates such positive outcomes in our community. This spring will mark the five year anniversary of the release of our initial survey and of the all the work that has gone into building a universal language community-wide around supporting our youth. The data released in 2006 was such an amazing springboard for conversations that took place in all parts of Middletown, from City Hall to schools’ staff meeting and PTAs, from afterschool programs to churches to civic organizations so many people were able to gather together around this framework and what our kids’ were saying about growing up in Middletown. With all the great work that has come from the survey I thought it would be a nice opportunity to briefly celebrate some of the initial key outcomes.

The first is around the use of students in sharing the results in the community. Dr. David Blumenkrantz who has worked with the YSB as a key advisor in this initiative insisted that when the results were released, that they be shown to a group of students even before key stakeholders like the Mayor or Superintendent of Schools got a chance to see it. Furthermore, no one outside of the students would get to see it until the big launch where the students themselves would announce the results along with a national facilitator from the Search Institute. Apparently, we were on of the first communities if not the first in this facilitator’s 30+ year career in this work, to co-present along with teens. What this also did, was set a critical notion that has carried with us throughout the first five years, and that is that teens need to be the driving force behind these discussions. By empowering the students to “own” their data, they were the ones who set the tone for any discussion that was to follow; their priorities would become our priorities.

One of the ways we’ve helped students promote their priorities was through a poster series aimed at increasing the percentage of an individual asset. A total of 30 students had a chance to create an individualized poster which were disseminated throughout the community. The posters can be seen here: http://www.assetpromise.org/uploads/pdf/posters/AssetsPosters_AllSchools.pdf

The final outcome that I wanted to note came directly from a conversation which with then-Mayor Sebastian Giuliano. As highlighted in many of the above posters, one of the most glaring statistics from 2006 was that only 19% of our kids felt valued by the community. As we discussed this figure and asked the questioned how do we improve on it, one of the answers became “we involve them in our community’s decision making process”; and from there the City’s Youth in Government program was born. It became a great example of the intentional and purposeful involvement of teens and of the simplicity of asset building (we’re holding these meetings anyway, why not involve them). Today the program has expanded to include 12 boards/commissions within the city and involves close to 20 young people each year.

In the next week, we’ll be shipping off this latest batch of surveys to be tabulated by the folks at the Search Institute and will be eagerly awaiting the results. A lot can happen in five years and this is a great opportunity for us to revisit what and how we’re doing as a community in supporting our youth. It’s possible some assets will increase while some might need additional improvements but the importance in data like this goes beyond the numbers because it gets us talking about the “whys” and the “hows” that create real community change. I know these next several months will fly by but as the spring approaches, I hope that you will all find the time to take part in the community discussions that will follow the release of the results and in continuing your commitment to support Middletown youth.

Thanks for all you do and have a great weekend.

Black, White, and Grey???

This issue is really interesting to me. I feel like it really speaks to issues around accountability, discretion, and zero tolerance. I encourage you to watch the video above, but here are the basics:

via ESPN.COM: BOSTON -- The 18-year-old senior was racing for a score as time wound down in the game against Blue Hills. Video shows Owens briefly raising his left arm and then lowering it as he approaches the end zone. The penalty nullified the touchdown, and Cathedral lost the game 16-14.

So its easy to understand the "excessive celebration" rule and how and why we would come to play in sports (especially high school atheltics - where sportsmanship can lead to life long lessons). But put into practice at that moment, it just feels wrong. Most can agree there is a difference between that and what Bills wideout Stevie Johnson did a few weeks back when he scored a touchdown the pretended to shoot himself in the leg (ala Plaxico Buress) and then mocked the Jet's own TD celebration. One seemed to be heat of the moment and reactionary while the other seemed to be calculated and choreographed. The rule via zero tolerance applies to both, but feels different when we allow each to be taken for its own merits.

I posted the video on twitter and had a quick back and forth with another follower and we both basically agreed that the rule makes sense but the application was off. But if you sit and think about it, the rule is the rule and was it really mis-applied? Many could argue yes, many no. For me, its really difficult to assess this situation. I enjoy taking real life examples and using them as teachable moments for the kids we work with but I struggle to really figure out what the take away is on this one? Is it that accountability is key and the moment you cross a line, whether its by an inch or by leaps and bounds, you have to be ready to accept the consquences. Or is the notion that there is a difference between intention and outcome and that rules have consequences that may miss the mark if we aren't using discretion and that judgement needs to be situational as much as it needs to be consistent (which is somewhat hypocritical I know).

Do our thoughts on this issue change if this the NFL as opposed to a high school game or that is was the championship or that it was in the forth quarter during the last drive? In the words of a tv commercial from my youth "I don't know, I'm asking". But I am very interested to put this in front of kids to get their opinion. At the very least it will lend itself to an interesting conversation.

A Week of Survey Preperation

Since I've been a little MIA here for the past couple weeks that's usually a good sign that something up (and yes there is). Tomorrow at Middletown High School and throughout the week at Woodrow Wilson Middle School student will be engaging in the Search Institute's Profiles of Student Life which tracks the attitudes and behaviors of a community's teenagers. This is the first time we've resurveyed since 2006 and I can't tell you how excited I am to see what we've accomplished over the last five years. Since this survey is once again the largest survey ever conducted of Middletown kids both in size (160 questions) and scope (all public school kids in Grades 7-12) a lot of work has gone into making sure everything is prepared correctly and that students.

Last week we presented the Developmental Assets framework to the general community at the Middletown Schools Association monthly meeting as well as special presentation to Mayor Drew and members of the Common Council and Board of Education.

 Leah Maille spent time in the WWMS cafeteria asking students to make pledges to take the survey seriously and answer questions honestly. A copy of the pledge is below.

Leah and I then teamed up with Dragons In Action member Leon Chandler to make our first PSA ever. Check it out below.

And between that all we prepared packets so that over 2,000 students have the opportunity to have their voices heard and let us know how we're doing as a community to ensure that all kids will grow up to be healthy and successful. Many thanks to Youth Services Bureau Advisory Board member Vinnie Senatore for volunteering with all us last week and intern Miles Nasta (who broke away from the Youth Yellow Pages project) to help make sure we got the survey items out on time.