Co-Presidents – Kathy Ryg reported that we have received several e-mails with positive comments regarding the annual meeting. She thanked everyone for their contributions.

Kathy also reported that the legislative session has not been adjourned and the budget has not been resolved. Lydia Taylor from Illinois After School Alliance is working toward the goal for after school needs to be part of the budget process.

Kathy announced that Peggy Miller of College of Lake County Judicial Services would like to be considered for a position on the Lake County After School Coalition Board of Directors.   Due to the fact that voting for new members had already taken place at the Annual Meeting in October, Connie Willegal recommended asking for an electronic vote of approval from the board members. 

Kathy announced that they were approached by Character Matters to merge their efforts with the coalition. Sheila Marks was present and gave a brief history of how Characters Matters came to be. After the Columbine High School tragedy in 1999, the College of Lake County and Lake County Regional Office of Education along with other community organizations founded Characters Matters in Lake County, an Illinois not-for-profit organization. This is a community organization dedicated to encouraging schools, business and communities throughout Lake County to promote basic ethical values. Programs have been established in Highland Park, Wauconda, Waukegan, and North Chicago. Judy Armstrong mentioned that the Round Lake area has been using the Character Counts program as well as recognizing young people in the community who exhibit excellence in character for several years. Character Matters has had much success with their Excellence in Character Award ceremony hosted in the spring for the past two years. In May, 2007, 72 Lake County students were named by their schools to receive this award; which is given to students who exhibit good character. They are currently working on their next event for the spring of 2008. Due to various circumstances, the membership of Character Matters has dwindled so they are looking to partner with another organization to continue their momentum. Should this happen, several members offered to be part of the character component subcommittee. There was also a suggestion to add a character component to the by-laws. Sheila Marks reported that their next Character Matters meeting will take place on November 15^th and their group will discuss their options at that time.

Ashley Ward, from the Charmm'd Foundation and a member of Character Matters, gave a brief summary of how her organization is providing technical assistance to communities along the north shore, including Zion, North Chicago, Lake Forest, and New Trier Township to help them infuse character education beyond the schools.

Secretary – Theresa Loerch reported that the LCASC website was updated with current board members and advisory board member’ information. Also, new e-mail addresses from the annual meeting have been added to the e-distribution list.

Ad/Hoc – 3rd Annual LCASC meeting – Theresa Loerch reported that there were approximately 170 attendees at the annual meeting. Several attendees had filled out the evaluation form and had shared their success stories. These cards were collected and compiled by the Mundelein Park District. Theresa passed out copies to the coalition and indicated that these will be discussed at next month’s meeting.

Lake County Underage Drinking Prevention Task Force – A letter was sent out from the coalition with the assistance of the Lake County Regional Office of Education to encourage schools to participate in the 2008 Illinois Youth Survey. The task force is using the Lake County Illinois Youth Survey data as an assessment and evaluation tool, so as school participation increases so does the scope of the data collected.

The task force currently has five committees including enforcement, legislation, resources, research and communication. Alcohol compliance checks have been conducted in several communities prior to local homecoming festivities. Data is being collected from participating communities and hopefully a press release will be forthcoming. Compliance checks will be conducted again in late December.

The resource committee is planning a January networking event for local groups addressing underage drinking to have an opportunity to share challenges and success. A meeting of judges and city prosecutors is also being planned for late winter or early spring to discuss the latest research supporting the importance of addressing underage drinking consistently across our county and state.

Task force meetings are held on the 3^rd Thursday of the month at 8 a.m. at the Mundelein Police Department. Everyone is encouraged and welcome to attend!

Illinois Strategic Prevention Framework Grant – Karen Smith reported that the overall goal of this project is to reduce underage drinking in Mundelein. A Mundelein, multi-sector Task Force has been established to oversee this project. This Task Force is working collaboratively with the Lake County After School Coalition and the Mundelein After School Coalition. The project is progressing ahead of schedule per time-line. The focus for the next six months is on assessment of underage drinking consumption and consequence data, building Task Force capacity to maximize community-wide impact, and developing an initial, community-wide strategic plan to combat underage drinking, following the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Strategic Prevention Framework process. Mundelein High School, its three public middle schools, and Carmel Catholic High School are all registered to administer the Illinois Youth Survey in February, 2008. The Department of Human Services is requiring a very structured and planned approach to this project with defined deliverables and time-frames. Karen and the Task Force are working actively to accomplish objectives and expectations.

Coalition Sustainability - Liz Nelson offered to chair this new subcommittee that will provide recommendations to the coalition regarding maintaining the structure and funding resources. Liz will be contacting those who offered to help out on this committee.

Strategic Planning – Connie Willegal offered to chair this committee.

IV. Announcement

United Way of Lake County, in partnership with the Lake County Board, Lake County Health Department and the Lake County Workforce Investment Board, along with numerous Lake County social and human service agencies, will publicly launch a new on-line resource today that will make it easier for citizens who need help to access social services provided by hundreds of local agencies. The free resource is the result of a private-public partnership. A printed Find Help Guide will also be available to the public. The on-line and printed guides replace the Directory of Lake County Human Services ("Redbook") that has been published by the Workforce Investment Board for many years. The website is: www.FindHelpLakeCounty.org