Steering Team meeting 6.8.2010 and meeting summary 5.24.2010 and next s

Hello Everyone:

The next steering team meeting will be held Tuesday June 8, 2010 from 6:30-8:00 in Donna's conference room.


Here is a draft meeting summary from 5.24.2010.

Cumberland Town Wide Learning Community
www.cumberlandtlc.org
May 24, 2010 6:00-7:30 pm
Meeting Summary

Attendees: Mary Ann Roll, Donna Morelle, Linda McMullen, Rob Thurston, Elizabeth Conley, Rev. Tom Conboy, Alice Clemente, Andrew Anderson Karen Freedman, Paul Ouellette, Paula Maloney, Lisa Beaulieu, Ryan Pearson, Dee Gould, and Rosemary Reilly-Chammat
Donna and Paul welcomed the group and members introduced themselves.
Karen led the icebreaker to look at community assets and make one connection with the TWLC work. Results included:
• Connections with existing organizations inside and outside Cumberland e.g. Hispanic Church
• Transportation issues-connect with parent volunteers
• Children’s garden, good but limited network
• Reservoir, natural resource/ outdoor learning environment/cross generational learning
• Caring programs, how to reach people not connected
• Recognize that people move to Cumberland because they want ot be here
• Spaces to use schools, library-outside school day, non school use is a cost
• Celebrating multiculturalism
• Look at resources as an opportunity to expand learning
• Historical buildings like the monastery
• Artistic resources-art opportunities, not as many opportunities for music which represents an opportunity to grow
• School Committee polices support reduced cost for facilities for programs that benefit youth.
• Boys and Girls Club space-sense of community
• Franklin Farm, community service and meeting a need
• Great recreational opportunities, dedicated fields
• Town is developed but not overly developed
• Replicate great outdoor pursuit, partner with Hasbro
• Splash at MIT could be a model as well, bring resources to a central location
• Blackstone River Theater has local artist and classes, dance, stone carving, place for apprenticeship, potential place to bring other cultures
• Senior center, recruit volunteers to teach oral tradition
• Businesses along the bike path and river use, Kelly House is open, fish ladder program
• Educators (broadly defined) need a place to access info and resources
• Alignment with work of Mayor, Police Department, state of the art communications library
• Day of Learning
• Day of Service-Disney’s Give a Day, Get a Day
• Multicultural Day
Subcommittee Report Out
The subcommittees reported out. Lisa’s summer calendar group could not meet due to competing priorities concerning time. The work will be rolled into a fall calendar of event. It will be important to engage groups now in town wide learning as many are in budget preparation for the coming year.
The Multicultural Group met and discussed the changing demographic of Cumberland. The group is inviting representatives of Southeast Asian Development Corporation and Progreso Latino the next subcommittee meeting to discuss strategies to engage multicultural populations. One idea was to host cottage meetings in neighborhood to talk with families about their experiences in Cumberland and needs. The subcommittee is meeting again on Monday June 14 at 6:00 in the Cumberland Lincoln Boys and Girls Club.
A discussion about the north-south divide focused on opportunities to change the culture in Town. We discussed the importance of having honest communications about issues that can be counterproductive to the development of town wide learning. Town wide learning can be an opportunity to help families learn about the demographics of our town. Paul shared an example of the Blackstone Valley Restaurant Tour as a way to experience other cultures through food. A Multicultural event could help celebrate the diversity in the community.
Back To School Event
Donna and Paula shared information about the Back to School Event, sponsored by Sodexho, as an opportunity to promote TWLC. This year’s event will be held on August 21, 2010 from 10:00 am-1:00 pm at BF Norton School. All families are welcome. There will be enough backpacks for 3,000 children All host sites are required to participate in a volunteer “stuff the backpack day” held on a Saturday in July. This activity engages families and ideas related to connecting with town wide learning were discussed such as replicating the Great Outdoors Pursuit or bringing representatives from town resources and programs to the school. The school does this already as part of the Back to School event but this would be a more expanded effort.
The group discussed the possibility of holding the event at a more central town location such as the Monastery. It was decided that for this year, the event would be help at BF Norton. Transportation ideas were also discussed to help ensure that families that live in other parts of town could attend the event.
Many in the group were eager to pilot some activities for town wide learning. Donna and Rosemary will meet with John Marsland, President of the Blackstone Valley Watershed Council to discuss potential town wide learning events this summer.
Next Meeting Date June 21, 2010 6:00-7:30 pm Summaries of World Café discussions.