Mockingbird Society

ASK-Y Meeting Minutes: 2/26/07

Jim explained that SB 5305, the Extending Medicaid for Foster Youth bill, is sitting in the Senate Ways & Means Committee right now. It must then go through the Rules Committee. He explained the purpose of companion bill HB 1201.
The Governor is trying to cover all youth in Washington state by 2010, so this is in line with that plan.
ASK-Y has much to be proud of! But we still do need to keep calling our legislators to let them know these bills are important to us.
The fiscal note is about $3.2 million dollars for the biennium of which only 1.6 is state dollars and the remaining dollars are part of the federal match.
HB 1922 is in the House Appropriations Committee at this time. The money has been removed from the bill but there is a possibility that it could be added back in.
There is also a need to educate youth providers about THOR (Transitional Housing Operating and Rent) and how youth can access this. This would be in line with the 10 Year Plan of the Committee to End Homelessness.
Sarah talked about a 12 year old boy in our state who is advocating for a legislative youth board.

Lauren went over some of the highlights of the evaluations from Training Day and Youth Advocacy Day. Overall the scores and comments were very positive.
The group wants to do the march again next year.
The buttons were great.
The group would change the food set up next year so the speakers are not directly in front of the food; also more vegan options.
The group would also do more youth trainings leading up to Advocacy Day for next year.
The evaluations do not ask what participants’ favorite part of Advocacy Day was. We will change the form to capture this for next year.

The Friends of Youth outreach center is being forced out of Kirkland due to some incidents at the center, and neighborhood concerns. Benji and Katy suggested having a homeless youth summit on the Eastside, similar to the SKCCH summit that was held in Seattle in the fall, to educate Eastside policy makers about the issue.
How can we get more connected to local jurisdictions? Perhaps Valerie could arrange for a speaker to come to our group from the Human Services department with the city of Seattle.
In summer 2007, we could go visit our legislators’ local offices, when they are not so busy with the legislative session. They have open office hours.
We could hold an event in the 2100 building for King County policy makers to educate them about foster/homeless issues.
The group discussed the need to do a lot of preparation with both youth and legislators in advance of a meeting or event, so that both youth and legislators feel heard and successful. It is easy for youth to feel discounted or misjudged if they are not well prepared.
TeamChild is planning on doing more policy/advocacy work, while involving youth in these activities. It would be helpful for ASK-Y to hear about what TeamChild is working on throughout the year, so we could possibly coordinate efforts.
We could form a committee to plan the agenda/activities for ASK-Y in 2007.