Administration's Call to Action

Read our letter from former Governor Baldacci:

December 8, 2008

Dear Shared Youth Vision Partner:

As we begin a very difficult and challenging budget and legislative session, I have some good news to share and request your support in this positive endeavor for Maine’s future. My Children’s Cabinet, which is chaired by the First Lady, has been working for over a year to implement the Maine Shared Youth Vision Council that will meet for the first time Wednesday January 7, 2009 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. at 45 Commerce Drive in the Fallen Heroes Room.

Maine’s Shared Youth Vision Council will serve as the Children’s Cabinet’s advisory collaborative-stakeholder body, through which program efficiencies, improvements, coordination, communication, and collaboration among youth-serving agencies and providers at the state, regional, and local levels will be examined.

Through the Children’s Cabinet’s cross-systems work, we’ve come to better understand the harsh realities facing Maine’s highest-need children and youth. For example, with improved measures of drop out rates, we know that the number of youth that are not finishing high school and are not positively engaging in their community or in the workforce is unacceptable. These youth are a key component of Maine’s future economy and workforce. As a state, we need to significantly increase the number of youth that graduate from high school, are positively connected to community, go to college, and become employed. We also need to improve the economic security of Maine families, as we know that poverty impacts the mental, physical, and emotional health of our children and youth.

The charge of the SYV Council is to:

Promote collaboration and improved communications among the various state agencies and community-based partners that serve Maine’s youth.
Lead the effort to explore and address issues confronting youth of ages 9-24, in transitions during their K-12 experience and from school to college or the workforce.
Guide the development and implementation of strategic plans, as directed by the Children’s Cabinet.
Review all child/youth population needs with priority given to those youth in transition, such as the planning of the Dropout Prevention Summit currently scheduled for July 27, 2009, and make recommendations to the Children’s Cabinet to address those needs.

This is an exciting opportunity to augment the forward-thinking systems-change process that the Children’s Cabinet has championed, but we need your expert staffs’ insights and participation, to do so.

Please ask your designated staff to complete the enclosed Council Membership Profile by December 24th and return it by fax to the SYC Council Americorps VISTA Darren Joyce at 287-5933, or by mail to: Darren Joyce, Department of Labor, 45 Commerce Drive, SHS 55, Augusta, ME 04333-0055.

I look forward to learning about the work of the Council in our future discussions as well as the formal report updates through the Children’s Cabinet.

Sincerely,

John E. Baldacci, Governor
Cc: First Lady Karen Baldacci, Chair, Governor’s Children’s Cabinet