You are invited to the Super Snack Challenge!

Brooklyn Park, MN – Each year, the Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth celebrates a person(s) or program serving who is seen as a Champion for Accelerating Youth Success in the Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park community. Champions for Accelerating Youth Success: Mobilize caring adults, Spread social emotional learning, Create equitable access, Create systems change, and Provide youth engagement. We’d like to congratulate our nominee’s: the Brooklyn Park Youth Outreach Team, United Way Propel SEL, North Hennepin Community College L.E.A.D. Series (Leadership through Experience, Awareness, and Development) and Hennepin County Librarians Morgan Wylie and Mallory Haskin. These four nominees deserve a round of applause for their work! Through a community vote, in which 153 partners to the BBA voted – the winner of the 2018 Accelerating Youth Success Champion recognition is… Hennepin County Librarians Morgan Wylie and Mallory Haskin! These Youth Services Librarians identified gender inclusivity as an area of focus and piloted their approach at the Anime Prom at Brookdale Library and AniManga Matsuri at Champlin Library, to provide a welcoming, inclusive, and accessible environment to youth participants of all gender identities. “Gender inclusivity and respect is critical to all youth,” said Haskin. “Libraries are a great place for teens and youth because they allow for intersectionality between public spaces and fandom centric events where identity can be explored and celebrated. When we embrace youth for who they are, we create the foundations for their success.” Their work: Mobilized caring adults: Provided inclusivity training for adult chaperones and building security staff. Spread social emotional learning: Youth planners and attendees attended Gender 101 training to develop empathy and understanding for peers. Created equitable access: Specific attention was paid to those who were most likely to feel unwelcome or less welcomed because of their gender identity or expression. Created systems change: Change in practice--at least for one night--with gender neutral restrooms. Change in awareness for staff, security personnel and teens. Provided youth engagement: Youth were involved in all aspects “Youth are looking to us to model behavior,” said Wylie. “The way we handle mistakes—such as accidentally misgendering someone — is just as important as getting it right. This project has been as much a learning experience for us as for our teens, and we’re excited to see where it goes from here.” “In 2016 we heard from our community that to accelerate youth success we needed more people to mobilize caring adults, build social emotional skills in youth, ensure equitable access to services, disrupt systems to improve outcomes for youth and engage young people...the Libraries are a perfect example of this kind of work!” said Rebecca Gilgen, Executive Director for the Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth. The Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth brings together youth, community, cities, schools, colleges and the county to improve outcomes for young people in the Brooklyns. For more information on Youth Programs at Hennepin County Library, visit the www.hclib.org For more information on the Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth go to www.brooklynsallianceforyouth.org

SEEK is looking for staff mentors for their 2018 summer program. SEEK Mentors are the foundation of the SEEK Program. In teams of three or four, SEEK Mentors manage a classroom of twenty to thirty students, providing them introductory math, science, and engineering skills. Mentors serve as role models for their students--as ethical leaders within the classroom, strongly committed to the ideals of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Mentor are the embodiment of the NSBE mission and help to deliver of the goals of the SEEK program. These individuals are the gateway to encouraging our young learners to explore Engineering and work to inspire them daily. Application Deadline is June 8th, 2018. To learn more go here , or for the position description go here . They are also looking for 3rd to 5th grade students to join the FREE 3-week summer enrichment program that will expose students to the world of STEM. The program will dates are July 9th - July 27th with a parent orientation on July 2nd at Earle Brown Elementary in Brooklyn Center. To learn more go here . Registration your future engineer at: applyseek.nsbe.org For more info, visit: nsbe.org/seek

Advancing Youth Safety and Well-Being The Brooklyns Youth Council is currently implementing their project initiatives that focus on increasing the well-being of youth in the Brooklyns. Two project initiatives are the Tobacco Reduction project in partnership with Hennepin County and the Champions for Youth project that focuses on developing peer mentoring/support groups in schools. Tobacco Reduction: The BYC has conducted 8 focus groups with 38 youth in their schools and community to learn about youth perspectives around the tobacco issues and its impact.They are also implementing education and awareness activities with the community.They have tabled at the BrookLynk Job Fair and the Brooklyn Center Community Schools Health & Wellness Resource Fair and have connected with over 250 youth, families and faculty to share their findings and any relevant tobacco data and information. They are in the process of writing tobacco related policy recommendations to both Cities of Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park. They will be presenting their recommendation to the City of Brooklyn Center City Council on Monday, May 14th. Champions for Youth Project – Peer Mentoring/Support Groups in Schools : The BYC is currently facilitating focus groups with youth in the community to gather their perspectives and needs around peer mentoring/support groups in schools. They have conducted 3 focus groups with 18 youth at Park Center High school, Brooklyn Center High School and Brookdale Library. They will be conducting more focus groups at in their community and schools, and using the results to engage stakeholders in taking action together. Lastly, staff completed a scan of all mentoring programs and mental health resource s that serve youth in our community.These programs will be included in our program locator that is set to launch this month and were an important part of a growing conversation on how mentoring and positive mental health are two sides of the same “well-being” coin.

As we head into 2018 we reflect back on the successes of 2017. To transform our community so that all young people can access and succeed in opportunities that ACCELERATE their success the Alliance Joint Powers Members have mobilized organizational, youth, economic and community power! Click here to read about the action!

Is your youth-serving organization interested in building capacity to embed social emotional learning (SEL) into your organization’s daily work? Apply to participate in the Propel SEL Professional Learning Community, a 12-month action learning project for 2-4 person teams from organizations that offer out-of-school youth development and mentoring programs for youth in grades 6-12 in the 9 county metro to increase intentionality of social-emotional learning practices in their organization. The cohorts will meet monthly starting February 2018. This collaborative project is funded by Greater Twin Cities United Way and the Carlson Family Foundation, and facilitated through a partnership between Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth, Ignite Afterschool, Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board, and Sprockets with professional development design by the Youth Work Learning Lab and Minneapolis Beacons. To apply, click on the following link to fill out the online application. Applications are due December 14th . Propel SEL Applicant Info Sheet Propel SEL Online Application Applicants can also request a stipend to support their participation. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Ivan Lui at 763-398-0795 or ivan.lui@brooklynsallianceforyouth.org .

This is an opportunity to share a meal, conversation, and feedback about issues you and your community face in accessing healthy foods. Join us for delicious local food, art in the making, activities for children, and critical conversations to advance equitable access to healthy food for all. A few details: The audience for the Metro Community Meal is community members, elected officials, and food access leaders. The meal is free! There will be a DJ, art in the making, and delicious local food. Flyer in English here Flyer in Spanish here Please do register, here are the links: Registration Link Registration Link in Spanish There will be $15 gift cards for the first 15 families to arrive! Event Details: Metro Community Meal Wednesday, November 29th 5:00-8:00pm Wilder Foundation - 451 Lexington Pkwy N, St Paul, MN 55104 The Metro Community Meal is an event of the Minnesota Food Charter in Action series, hosted by Metro Food Alliance Network (MFAN).

The Alliance is looking for an amazing youth worker to support the work of young people in our community taking action to accelerate youth success. The Brooklyns Youth Council Specialist part-time position will assist our team in supporting and facilitating the work of our youth leaders. The Brooklyns Youth Council is a youth workgroup from Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center whose mission is to represent youth in the Brooklyns by providing a voice in collaboration with the community and local government in order to positively raise awareness of challenges youth face. The Youth Specialist position will support the work of the Brooklyns Youth Council that is managed by the Alliance Project Coordinator. This position will work closely with the Alliance Project Coordinator and BYC Interns to support and facilitate the work of the Youth Council. The purpose of this role is to provide logistical support to help the workgroup function and operate. In addition, this role will provide direct support to the Youth Council members as they build skills, facilitate discussions, develop action projects that align with the goals of the Youth Council, and work to integrate youth voice into the decisions that impact youth and their community. For questions about this opportunity feel free to contact Kaysone Syonesa . For a complete job description, go here . To apply for the position, go here .

Swim lessons available during the day, evening or weekend for Brooklyn Center and Hennepin County Residents ages 3-18 who have not had lessons before and present a financial need.

Last week Alliance partners provided a tour to the Cummins Corporate Responsibility group to share the assets and opportunities in our community. This was a driving tour with site visits at the City of Brooklyn Center Recreation facility, Brooklyn Center Community Schools Health Resource Center and Zanewood Recreation Facility. We also made an impromptu stop to see a Rec On the Go bus at Huntington Place apartments. Special thanks to BC Schools for providing the bus! This tour was a huge success in connecting our private sector partners to our community.