Restorative Justice Advisory Board Meeting Minutes
November 13, 2008

In attendance: Jim Schroeter – MCDSS, Laura Yarie – Justice Programs, Jamie Henrichs – Marathon County DA’s Office, Lou Plaisance – Retired, Mike Stouffer - Volunteer, Dan Kohn – Greater Wausau Christian Services, Chris Anklam – MCJF, Officer Sable – EMPD, David Cha, Carrie Vergin & Paula Schultz – MCRJP.

Introductions took place and the minutes of the September 11, 2008 board meeting were reviewed.

Coordinator updates: Carrie Vergin updated the board members on the most recent statistics sent to the Office of Justice Assistance – these were sent to OJA in October. Carrie also explained that we did some revising of the statistical form (excel format) to better summarize the data needed by funders. The final report to OJA for the three-year Block Grant will be due in January and Carrie stated she would provide us with these numbers at the next meeting. The funding from OJA helped to cover David Cha’s position and as this funding is coming to a close, MCDSS has agreed to help so we can continue David’s position.

Concerning the attendance of training programs, Carrie shared that she attended a session on grant writing that was provided by our area foundations. Paula, Miranda, and Carrie also attended a training conference entitled, “Loving Leadership for Challenging Children,” sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. Carrie states she has been asked to present restorative practices at a conference in Madison. The conference will be for Assistant Principals and will be held in February, 2009. Carrie also participated in the United Way’s Community Priorities Focus Groups.

Carrie shared that we just accepted a new intern on October 20, 2008. Miranda Day, from Upper Iowa, will be with us in order to complete 400 hrs. Kayleigh Nikolai will also be interning with us after the first of the year. She is with Northcentral Technical College and will need to complete 144 hrs.

A trip to Barron County was proposed for next spring. Carrie would like to take a group to visit the schools and invited members of the board to attend. She believes it would be a positive experience – a few of us had a visit with the Barron County School System about two years ago and was impressed by the work they are doing to implement restorative practices.

New Business: Carrie then opened the floor for discussion on the Youth Restitution Program. Concerning whom we might approach for funding or grants, Carrie shared that we were still working with ShopKo to see if we could get a donation from them. She explained that for ShopKo, the request has to be made internally. Dennis Grosskreutz of ShopKo, has been working closely with us and might be able to request funding on our behalf. Lou suggested that we approach the area foundations. Jim stated that we have received money from several area foundations, but have been turned down twice by the Dudley and Alexander Foundations. Carrie stated she would continue to apply for funds as the grants present themselves.

A question was also posed, as to how much money should be raised yearly for the Youth Restitution Project. The suggestion was to aim for $5000.00 per year. Carrie explained that she contributed her portion of the funds provided by the State and Local Bar Association, to the Youth Restitution Project. She received approximately $1,500.00 for the time she spent on developing the information included on the site. These funds will be available in 2009. The balance of the funds received, were used to pay our web-master, Jim Prozinski. The web-site is complete and can be viewed at www.mcrjp.org

David Cha then presented to the Board the idea of mentoring circles for Hmong youth in our community. We would like to contact the Wausau Area Hmong Mutual Association, in hopes of collaborating with them to get this running. David shared that he would like to promote cultural awareness to the Hmong youth - he noticed that teens we are working with are having a difficult time understanding who they are, within the two primary cultures that surround them. Ideas of history, assimilation, communication, life skills, and corrective thinking were put out on the table. Is this even an idea to pursue? Dan shared that we need to define who we are targeting and if it fits into the mission of restorative programming. Dan stated we might want to contact the Diversities Office/Thomas Lee to get his input on this. Jim shared that he would also like to see education given to the parents. We asked the board members to contact us if they had any other ideas that they would like to share. We will continue this discussion at our next meeting, which was scheduled for Thursday, 2-12-09 @ 12:00 pm. (Note: Due to scheduling conflicts, we need to reschedule for 2-19-09 @ 12:00 pm.)