Subject: IMPORTANT: March meeting minutes and letter |
From: "Reis, Beth" |
Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:38:03 -0700 |
To: "SAFE SCHOOLS: post to main list" |
NOTE: The
Coalition rarely sends attachments. This letter is an
exception.
Meeting
Minutes
3/18/08,
3-5 p.m. PST
Safe
Schools Coalition Meeting
In
attendance: Arnold Martin, Settle
Counseling Service; Beth Reis, Safe
Schools Coalition (SSC) and Public Health Seattle & King County; Ethan
Blustein, SSC and Solid Ground; Frieda Takamura, Washington Education
Association (WEA); Heather Carter, Youth Suicide Prevention Program; Heather
Murphy, SSC and Individual; Helen Stillman, SSC and Lambert House;
(1)
ANNOUNCING
A CHANGE IN STAFFING – Beth
Dream
Woody, one of our two Justserve Americorps Members this year, has stepped down.
Solid Ground will be reassigning her. Thank you, Dream, for all you contributed
this year. Especially for the tabling and outreach you have done and for
organizing an intervention retreat. The
coalition had decided to have an initial training on Undoing Institutionalized
Racism, hold quarterly updates to ensure an ongoing conversation.
Anyone
who has appointments scheduled with Dream, please contact us so we can
reschedule with someone else ASAP: mailto:beth@safeschoolscoalition.org
(2)
DONATIONS –
Beth
Thank you
to Ted and Joyce Liljeholm for your recent donation.
(3)
REPORT
FROM
PFLAG
Olympia's February meeting - The Not-So-Straight Truth About Our Schools. 50
people were there (instead of our average about 15) and included administrators,
teachers, students, parents, Evergreen College students and faculty, a
Washington State Human Rights Commissioner & other interested folks. We had
an excellent discussion that re-energized the board's passion to do more work on
safe schools issues here. Thanks to Rosalinda for helping with the discussion,
and thanks to Frieda for sending WEA posters so quickly after!
(4)
REPORT
FROM SSC-IDAHO – Shane
Update
on School Visits: Shane visited staff
members at
(5)
SPECIAL
EVENTS – Beth
a)
March
9th Northwest premiere of “It’s STILL
Elementary”
Huge
success: 175 people attended. Thanks and photos here: http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/ItsStillElementary-SeattleEvent.html
·
Thank you
so much to the Planning Committee:
·
If anyone
needs larger photos contact Gabi: gabi@safeschoolscoalition.org
·
Every
Organization involved in coordinating this event should take credit for
it!
·
The
Coalition raised about $1000.00.
·
Is anyone
interested in coordinating a Volunteer
Appreciation event? Contact Helen:
Helen@safeschoolscoalition.org
b)
April
1: Laugh OUT Loud
comedy event to
benefit the Safe Schools Coalition at the Comedy Underground. Please come join
us. Bring your colleagues, your partner, you whole GSA! More info, flyers and
advance tickets here:
http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/LaughOUTLoud-SSC_Benefit.html
·
E-mail
Tracy Flynn tracy.flynn@ppww.org for
Tickets!!
·
Kathy
Kaminski bought 10 tickets and will bring 9 friends. We encourage everyone who
can to do the same.
·
The
Coalition will receive the full cost of tickets purchased through Tracy and half
of the ticket cost at the door.
c)
“It’s
STILL Elementary” showing at ESD 123 in the Tri-Cities? In
(6)
INTERVENTION
TEAM REPORT – Penny, Frieda, Jim, Ethan, Frank, Seth, Kyle
a)
Exciting
news: Penny Palmer has agreed to take over as Intervention Chair!! Thank you,
Penny. If anyone has feedback for Penny contact her at holdyrhorses@verizon.net.
b)
Recent
interventions … updates on
·
Frieda
Takamura and a colleague went to mediate a conversation with the staff at
·
Frieda has also requested that other GSAs send letters of
support to the GSA at
·
The school has hired
Pudget Sound ESD to do some systemic training on cultural competency.
·
The staff at
·
Equality
c)
Publicizing
intervention services via the web: Ethan
·
Ethan has created a
Myspace page for Intervention Services. He is in the process of adding music,
the story cards to the page, and photos from It’s STILL Elementary.
d)
We
need more Intervention Specialists
Washington State residence is
required. Your role: providing crisis intervention and
problem-solving help to a student, a family, or a school employee who is
experiencing anti-LGBTQ harassment or violence at school. You may be in contact
just with the person making the request or, occasionally, with their principal
or others. The time commitment is one on-call day per week (agreeing to check
email and phone messages a few times that day) and, on average, responding to
one actual intervention request per month. That one actual intervention might
require as little as half-hour or, perhaps once or twice a year, 8-10 hours of
your time. You need to bring
experience in schools or youth-serving health, mental health or social services.
Interested? Contact us: http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/contact/?id=10
(7)
MEMBERSHIP REPORT
-- Beth
a)
The
Safe Schools Coalition is in need of a membership chair. It could be
your organization's in-kind alternative to dues! Or your personal way of
ensuring that others have what you didn’t when you were in school! You do NOT need to be located in
b)
New
org member applications: none
this month
c)
Renewals: Diversity
Productions,
d)
Join
or renew for 2008 now!!! It’s easy and painless!!! Go to:
http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/members_join-renew.html
· For “In Kind” membership to the Coalition fill out the renewal form and state In Kind Donation and what your organization has done or will do in the future.
(8)
LISTSERVE
REPORT – Beth
a)
Welcome to recent subscribers
around US [CA, ID, IL, MI, NH, NJ, NV, NY, OR, TX & WA (Bellingham, Everett,
Lake Stevens, Lynnwood, Marysville, Mount Vernon, Seattle, Shoreline, Tacoma,
Woodinville)] and in Ontario, Canada.
b)
In
January and February we sent an average of 8 messages per week (including an
average of 1 per week to both the IMPORTANT NEWS and regular NEWS lists) about
events, jobs, current news, research, resources, action, and lesson
planning.
c)
At last
count, we had 847 subscribers in
at least (not everyone tells us where they are from) 11
countries:
d) Frieda has begun receiving 3 inquiries/ day, apparently sparked by the Listserv.
(9)
SPEAKERS
BUREAU/TRAINING TEAM/OUTREACH REPORT – Helen, Ethan,
Beth
a)
Recent
speaking, training and outreach events
·
Kristina
Armenakis and Nathan Shara did 3 trainings in
·
Casey
Family Panel. Since the training the program has added Transgender inclusive
paperwork.
·
Lisa Love
did training at
b)
Upcoming
events that other speakers & trainers could
observe
·
MLK
·
Ethan will be training
9th and 10th at
c)
Upcoming events still
in need of speakers, trainers and outreach
volunteers
d)
State PTA Conference?
(Bellevue PFLAG is stepping down)
·
Ethan,
Kyle, and Heather might be able to table for some of this event. If anyone else
is interested contact Helen: Helen@safeschoolscoalition.org
· For more info: http://www.wastatepta.org/meetings/meetings.htm
(10) WEB
SITE REPORT
a)
We had a total of more
than 200,000 hits in February from more than 26,000 individuals (up considerably over January) in 113 countries
including, for example,
b)
Youth pages update – Kyle is
finishing up interviews of youth and community members to be added to the Youth
page. Ethan and Kyle are conducting surveys about the design of the site. Please
see below.
c) YOUR OPINION WANTED: Youth, please take a short survey about the youth pages on the Safe Schools Coalition's web site!! If you are a youth (under age 22), especially if you are an elementary, middle or high school student, please help us serve you better!! Go to this page http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/blackboard-youth.html and click on the survey at the bottom of your screen! If you work with or love someone this age, no matter what their sexual orientation or gender identity/expression, please ask them to help us out, too.
(11) WASHINGTONIAN
LEGISLATIVE ISSUES
Work can now begin on the 2009
legislative session. Interested in heading up a safe schools work group? It's a
short term commitment of just 12 months! It means convening a group to explore
other states' strategies and to consider what Washington needs to do next (some
teeth or funds to enhance the effectiveness of the anti-bullying bill? some
steps related to teacher credentialing? some instruction to OSPI and DOH related
to identifying medically accurate, age-appropriate curriculum to address LGBT
issues? got other thoughts?) Contact the Coalition to inquire or volunteer: http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org/contact/?id=4
·
Ethan will coordinate an ad-hoc
committee to work on future legislation.
·
A research opportunity for a Grad
Student! Connect issues in legislation with diversity issues. For example How do
multiple oppressions affect academic achievement? Contact Beth Reis at beth.reis@kingcounty.gov
·
Marsha, Heather, and Kyle would like
to be on this committee.
(12)
Suicide
Prevention Conference (Sept 22,
(13) Safe Schools Coalition will offer to exchange memberships with the GSBA (the Greater Seattle Business Association, the GLBTQ chamber of commerce) .
(14) Letter
to the HRC regarding the status of their membership.
(15) Workplace
Giving Campaigns
·
Penny has agreed to do
help Beth with this.
UPCOMING
MEETINGS … contact the chair if you have agenda items to suggest or if you need
instructions about attending (in person) or calling in (by conference call).
All are welcome- you
do NOT need to be a Coalition member to attend.
Apr
15th, 3-5 pm, Pacific
Time. Frieda chairs and
Beth records
Frieda: 253-765-7062; ftakamura@washingtonea.org
May
20th,
3-5 pm, Pacific
Time. Beth chairs and Ethan
records
Beth: 206-296-4970; elizabeth.reis@metrokc.gov
Jun
17th,
3-5 pm, Pacific
Time. Marsha chairs
and Beth records
Marsha: 206-601-8942;
mbotzer@botzerconsulting.com
Ethan
Blustein
JustServe Americorps
Volunteer
Safe Schools
Coalition
w
206-330-2099
c
206-369-9588
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About Safe Schools Coalition
The Safe Schools Coalition is a public-private partnership of 80+ organizations (government agencies, schools, community agencies, churches, youth/student groups, gay/lesbian groups, human rights groups) and 400+ individuals working to help schools become safe places where every family can belong, where every educator can teach, and where every child can learn, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.
Safe Schools'
website: http://www.safeschoolscoalition.org
Got a problem at school with anti-gay
harassment?
In Washington
State:
1-877-SAFE-SAFE
(1-877-723-3723) 24 hours a day - the phone line is answered at the Sexual
Assault Hotline and they will have a Safe Schools Coalition Intervention
Specialist volunteer get back to you within 24 hours. Or contact us by email:
Intervention
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Questions
Speakers’ Bureau (student/community workshops, professional
training)
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Publications and Listserve
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E Seneca, Seattle, WA 98122-4203 (or call 206-957-1621)
Co-Chairs:
Frieda Takamura, Washington Education Association,
253-765-7062
Elizabeth “Beth” Reis, Public Health - Seattle & King County, 206-296-4970
Marsha Botzer, Ingersoll Gender Center and The Task Force,
206-601-8942
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professional journal messages
Gabi Clayton, for
legislative/elective and fundraising messages
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