An Introduction to the Alliance A Partnership of Minnesota Alliance With Youth, AmeriCorps, Serve Minnesota & Partners across the state

Alliance Mission Minnesota Alliance With Youth is a collaborative network advocating with and for youth to ensure that all young people have the proven resources they need to be successful: caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, effective education, and opportunities to serve.

The Focus of Our Work  Engagement:  Engagement: Connecting youth with service & leadership opportunities in order to create meaningful change in their communities.  Voice:  Voice: Providing a variety of avenues for youth to work with adults in addressing the critical needs facing our state.  Success:  Success: Targeting youth with programs and supports to impact their academic achievement, school engagement, and overall success in life.

A Brief History & Overview  Founded in 1997, the Alliance is the State affiliate of America ’ s Promise ( Five Promises  We use the framework of the Five Promises to inform & shape our work. convene & connect  We convene & connect statewide partner organizations with each other & to local communities. contribute resources  We contribute resources through the Promise Fellows (which are funded by AmeriCorps & the Corporation for National & Community Service ( Red Wagon Award, and Global Youth Service Day efforts. support & encourage youth voice & youth/adult partnerships  We support & encourage youth voice & youth/adult partnerships as a key way to sustain & support young people and create lasting change.

Our Philosophy of Partnership: Our Core Values  The most effective way to impact youth is through strengthening partnerships: both at the community level and at the statewide level.  Youth development is not just an effort of those in education or youth development: it is a community-wide effort.  We work to empower and support those working throughout Minnesota to ensure all young people have access to the Five Promises.  We convene key partners to share best practices, research, and recognize the work of communities.  We are a leader in connecting & mobilizing partner organizations to build capacity around the resources young people need to be successful.  The Alliance works to contribute resources to help youth success through the Promise Fellow program, funded by AmeriCorps.

Partnerships at the Community Level  School-Community Partnerships (SCPs) are made up of collaborating organizations, schools, faith communities, parents, businesses, government agencies, and youth working to ensure young people have access to the resources they need to be successful.  Youth-Adult Partnerships are key to making these efforts sustainable and productive in meeting the challenges facing youth & communities.

Strengthening Partnerships Each year, the Alliance works with between School Community Partnerships to:  Increase opportunities for youth voice,  Promote civic engagement,  Increase academic success, and  Ensure access and opportunities for all young people to achieve.

Gallup Poll (2009)  Only 50% of youth are hopeful (that is, have ideas and energy for the future—hope predicts GPA and retention in college better than high school GPA/SAT/ACT scores)  20% of youth are actively disengaged and additional 30% are not engaged (show lack of involvement and enthusiasm for school)  About 2/3 of youth are considered to be “thriving”—they think about their present and future life in positive terms.  Overall, the Gallup Poll found that only ¼ of the youth meet the criteria for being hopeful, engaged, and thriving. So what does this mean for us?

What Does It Mean for Us? More than ever, young people need:  Caring Adults in their lives to keep them ENGAGED  Effective Education to give them HOPE  Opportunities to Serve to help them THRIVE This is what the Alliance works to achieve alongside schools, parents, communities, organizations, and youth themselves.

How does our model work in Communities?  Brooklyn Park & Brooklyn Center  Northfield  Worthington  The Brooklyns:  Lunch/in-school tutoring, afterschool homework help & leadership activities at the Middle School  Mini-Summit recipient; outcomes focused on connecting youth with programs & safe places and in bringing together two neighboring communities  Strong stakeholders in Community Education, Church/Faith-Based Orgs, School, Local bakery/gas station, police department support, youth council  Working on figuring out volunteer & Civic engagement piece

What’s working, continued…  Worthington  Schools in 4 Districts, Integration Collaborative, Local Businesses, CBOs  Afterschool Programming with lots of youth voice/engagement in the planning and execution of activities (Dance/hip hop group, peer mentoring program, etc)  Focus on career/college access for new immigrants/ELL students  Looking for ways to engage volunteers in ongoing roles, rather than one time events  Northfield  Strong collaboration between school, CBOs, health organizations, mayors council, local colleges  Both MS/HS/Youth Orgs provide wraparound tutoring, afterschool programming, service projects, and summer activities  Over $1 mill in support for mentoring programs has come into the community as a result of their SCP  Still navigating ways to engage law enforcement, business sector

What is the Impact?  Fellows have recruited over 20,000 youth volunteers to give back to their communities through volunteer and service opportunities  Over the past 5 years, Fellows have provided over 18,500 youth with intensive interventions  2/3 of youth in programs facilitated by Fellows improve their academic performance  Promise Fellows have partnered with over 150 school and community partners across the state of Minnesota

Youth-Adult Partnerships  Groups of youth and adults come together to:  Develop authentic relationships and Identify areas that the partnership wants to strengthen as a group in support of the community, and youth in particular  Work on improving communication in order to avoid duplication of programs and services  Assess the political climate within a community for engaging youth as assets and develop more intentional means of collaborating across programs and organizations  Meet regularly (bi-monthly or quarterly) and provide ongoing financial, human, and programmatic resources (such as access to space, materials, etc) to the work of the Partnership

AmeriCorps Promise Fellows  210 members serve in schools, community organizations, and youth development intermediaries  Build the capacity of organizations and leverage community resources to more effectively meet the needs of youth  Funded by the Corporation for National & Community Service and Serve Minnesota

Hosting an AmeriCorps Promise Fellow  Applications available online (  Cash Match of $6900 plus in-kind for office space, technology, resources, materials, etc  Must demonstrate a need AND the capacity or willingness to form partnerships with community organizations, government, businesses, faith community, and academic institutions