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Youth Initiative Update.
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Staff:
Department:
Loryn Clark, Executive Director
Housing and Community
Susan Brown, Executive Director
Library, Community Arts & Culture
Chris Blue, Executive Director
Police, Community Safety
Linda Smith, Interim Director
Parks and Recreation
Sarah Osmer Vi?as, Assistant Director
Housing and Community
Megan Peters, Community Connections Coordinator
Housing and Community
Molly Luby, Special Projects Coordinator
Library
Overview: The purpose of this item is to provide an update on the Town's Youth Initiative.
Recommendation(s):
That the Council receive this report and provide direction on the staff team's proposed next steps.
Overview of Chapel Hill Youth Initiative
In response to the Mayor and Town Council's interest in exploring opportunities to enhance our responsiveness to the needs and interests of youth in the community, the former Town Manager formed a new cross-departmental team including staff from the Housing and Community, Library, Parks and Recreation, and Police Departments in 2017. Building on the past collaborative youth-focused efforts of the Town, this team has intensively focused on advancing the Town's Youth Initiative, as described below.
Youth Initiative Process and Progress to Date
* The Team developed a multi-faceted process to explore the following questions using a human-centered design approach: Who are the youth in Chapel Hill? What do they do and why? Where do they go and why?
* The Team conducted over a dozen focus groups, analyzed secondary data sources, and convened ~50 youth-focused organizations to help us develop a deeper understanding of youth's lived experiences and inform the proposed solutions we develop.
* Key themes emerged from the data:
1. Youth want safe and inclusive spaces
2. Youth have busy schedules and face pressure to succeed
3. Discrimination impacts youth's lived experiences
4. Youth face mental health challenges
Proposed Next Steps
From our team's extensiv...
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