MSN October Updates : Group Problem Solving

Thanks to all of you who joined for our October meeting - we had a mix of new and familiar faces. 

Here’s a PDF of slides from the meeting (links are still clickable)

In case you missed it: 
We reviewed our big picture basics on school reopening (the October date for the youngest learners to return to in-person is quickly approaching), criteria and metrics that CPS is posting on their website (see slides) and the conversation from the previous night’s School Committee meeting.
We had a great Q&A session about remote schooling with input and answers from school-based staff in four schools - Mariel Santos Dugan (Guidance Counselor at Amigos) Julia Ho (School Partnerships at RAUC) Dami Oluwole, Youth Connector at CSUS and Ted Hirsch from CCSC. We talked about what attendance looks like, struggles or strategies for video on/video off engagement and what homework looks like, among other things. 

MSN October Announcements: 

• Margaret Fuller House: next week starting remote learning support all day - still spots for older students available 
• CCC: will have spots for full day remote learning; going to be losing some younger kids who will be going back to school, pushing to recruit 4-8th graders to fill those spots, can take max of 25 in our building. http://www.cambridgecc.org/enrollment.html
• Navigation Games: event for Vampire 0 scavenger hunt at Danehy Park, register ahead and given a start time, can take 30 teams, great for kids of all ages because it can be distanced but still super fun
• George: looking for work sites for Fall Development Program, would employ a 14yr old or older, need sites that can host in person or virtual, they will pay but you need to supervise and give them something interesting to do, 4 hours live min with you, and then time working on their own on projects is ok. Email George about it, they also have some grants to hire part time staff to work with the kids if your org doesn’t have that capacity. 
• Identify young people (14+) for the Fall Development Program: if you have a young person who is 14 by Oct 26 and really needs something, get George those names by email, not a wide blast going out - prioritizing those on free and reduced lunch 
• Fall on the Fields (Melinda Maxwell): every day on the fields, we set up games for them, know any kids who need that time outside and moving?, 5 sites around Cambridge, still accepting kids, goes to Oct 30th. Registration process is easy - you Come in, it’s a one page “hit or quit it” they get in the next day. 
• Khari: heads up about pods, contact tracing, and crossing pods in after school. They haven’t addressed it directly - but have all of your enrollment stuff really tight, communicate with parents a lot, we need to have trust and know whos working with who. 
• CCTV's Black in Cambridge Five part series led by School Committee Vice Chair Manikka Bowman and Councilor/Former Mayor Denise Simmons: https://www.cctvcambridge.org/node/722095
• GOLD (Puja): opening up their weekly programming to high schoolers, to be peer mentors (virtually), on Tues evenings, send any interested students your know to Puja Girlx Only Leadership Development Program: Bit.ly/GOLD20-21 

• Info on the Healing Retreat: www.ourfirecollective.org.  Fill out this interest form if you think you may be interested, to talk to organizers. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1-hCtXuNKRaLFqNsoyrHJ33eOghkjtyhq53wDNSxnyJQ/edit 
• Library info (Emily Meyer): For any library-related questions, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. I'm more than happy to help you or any of your students figure out how to get books! Or anything else!
• Social media and youth work (Marlees West): If anyone wants to talk social media & youth work, I’m happy to chat! [email protected]
• Link to the CPS Community Partner Portal:  Link to the Portal request an account page: https://secure1.cpsd.us/community_partners_portal/ 
  
• Emily’s library how to guide: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oDLhnz9hOvxTMcdTelR-R6sWPdP1bVax/view?usp=sharing  ​

Here’s s snapshot of our proposed Problem solving topics: ​

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Also, here is a list of participants and their emails - reach out to each other! We’ve had a few requests for this to facilitate folks reaching out to each other between meetings to make connections and work together - which is exactly what we are about, especially at a critical time like this. 
Emails: 
Annie Leavitt, Middle School Network Coordinator, [email protected] 
Dami Oluwole, Youth Connector at CSUS and DHSP, [email protected] 
Medjine Lucien, Youth Connector at Putnam Ave Upper School and DSHP, [email protected]
Megan Ryan, Margaret Fuller House, [email protected]  
Latifah James, CCC [email protected] 
Ethan Childs, Navigation Games, [email protected] 
Julia Ho, RAUC Family Partnerships Coordinator, [email protected]
Valerie Cooimbra, Breakthrough Greater Boston: [email protected] 
Melinda Maxwell, DHSP [email protected] 
Rachel Kinch, CCC, [email protected] 
Emily Meyer, Cambridge Public Library, [email protected] 
Marlees West, DHSP, [email protected] 
Bo Lembo, DHSP, [email protected] 
Dara Borden, City Step, [email protected] 
George Hinds, Office of Workforce Development, [email protected] 
Andrew Liedtka, Find It Cambridge, [email protected]
Ted Hirsch, Community Charter School of Cambridge (Admissions/Outreach), [email protected] 
Mariel Santos Dugan, Amigos Guidance Counselor, [email protected] 
Jordan Harvey, Tutoring Plus, [email protected] 
Kelly Galvao, Upward Bound, [email protected] 
Melisa Rojas, MIT Museum, [email protected] 
Amelia Woodley, Tutoring Plus, [email protected] 
Deanna Wu, Cambridge Public Health Dept, [email protected] 
Rohan Kundargi, MIT K-12 Community Relations, [email protected]