As promised here is the article brought by voters of the town for funding the Youth Commission;
Town Meeting Petitionmore after the jump
We, the undersigned, registered voters of the Town of Dartmouth hereby petition the Select Board to cause the following article to be inserted, verbatim, in the Warrant for the next Annual Town Meeting or Special Town Meeting to be held.
ARTICLE: Appropriation for the Purpose of Funding Position of Youth Advocate FY-2010
To see if the Town will vote to appropriate the sum of $69,075.59 for the purpose of funding the salary of the Dartmouth Youth Advocate for the period beginning July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010, said appropriation to be from the Tax Levy, or any available funds including but not limited to the Stabilization Fund, or any other available sources that the Dartmouth June 2009 Annual Town Meeting so sees fit, and further that Town Meeting may take any action relative to the matter of keeping the position of the Dartmouth Youth Advocate...
...funded for the duration of Fiscal 2010.
The reasons for, and objective of the article are as follow (Please elaborate sufficiently to provide a meaningful argument for the article’s proposal):
We, the undersigned, feel that the position of Youth Advocate is critically important for the safety, support, and well being of the youth of Dartmouth who may be at risk, in crisis, or who otherwise do not have support services available to them by any other means.
The sum of money required to implement the intent of this article is:
$ 69,075.59.
The spokesman for the sponsor or sponsors of the aforementioned article is:
Michael Gagne
8 Gulf Hill Drive
Dartmouth, MA 02748
(24 Signatures followed - BT)
Posts
17 comments:
Does this figure include benefits?
That figures. Mr. Lee was instrumental in getting lots of support for Mr. Gagne when his contract was not renewed.
Let's hope TM is smart enough to not cave to the emotionalism that is sure to be forthcoming.
Mr. Gagne and twenty-four others would do well to read the wisdom of the Dalai Lama that Bill has currently posted.
Is there no one in the schools who can refer these youths to "support services available to them" other than the youth advocate?
If guidance counselors, teachers, etc., do not know appropriate channels to send these youths to, I think there is a problem.
Hopefully town meeting sent a message during the recall vote. They supported the decision of the select board on Gagne. With any luck at all, they will support this decision too. The last thing we need as a community is to have to continue dealing with Kevin Lee's antics.
Bill, could you also give us the names of the other 24 signers? Thanks.
I don't have a good way to scan the names. I have OCR (optical character recognition) software but not Adobe Acrobat. I'll try to scan it as a picture and see how it comes out.
The Youth Advocate's position has been in question for a few years now. If there is no one in the schools that can facilitate the groups for teens that he runs, what about contracting Lee to run a few groups during the year. We have many social workers, guidance counselors, and psychologists in the schools now. Bottom line-we can't sustain this position. We need to be creative.
Define many. I never had that impression.
Many equals $600k worth.
at an average of 57000 you have 10.10 for 5 schools. ten for 4077 kids or 1 for every 408 kids. yep we are overloaded. what waste
I vote that the schools take the youth advocate position in their budget. If it is SO important, the schools will surely fund the position.
to Anonymous' post on May 2nd,8:02- To help answer your question perhaps; the person these youth would be refered to IS the youth advocate. Guidance counselors currently are used to assist in just school related issues; college applications,class selection etc. Also, the in school counselors, (whether this is a typical counselor, guidance counselor or other) are only available when school is in session. The youth advocate is available 24-7, 365 days a year. His cell phone is always on so that he is available to those in crisis or in need of direction.
Hope this helps
How do other towns fund their youth advocate position?
How many towns have them to begin with? Is this one of those "nice" jobs that was created through the generosity of a private citizen, and then kept on when Dartmouth had money? Unfortunately, we do not have the money now.
The crisis center is also open 24/7 for anyone who feels the need. If our social workers are so busy, maybe we could have someone come in to the schools and give groups. They could work on a contract basis.
We should not take any money from the stab fund!
I agree with Nat Dias, give this position to the schools!
To SAM, what I meant was, if there were no youth advocate, who would teachers, etc., be referring the youth to?
Do the various counselors not have a network of individuals that can be recommended when a child needs assistance? I find it hard to believe that no one would know where to direct someone who needed assistance.
Post a Comment