Marion County Commission on Youth, Inc.MCCOY

Case for Support

Marion County Commission on Youth, Inc.MCCOY

Robbie has the deck stacked against him. His family is poor, his school is failing, and his neighborhood is filled with violent crime, drugs, and decaying properties.According to all the statistics, Robbie will end up incarcerated, addicted, and unprepared for life, and he will be a likely victim of the widespread violence claiming countless young people.

Keisha is a young lady everybody looks up to. She is a passionate volunteer for worthy causes, a hard-working student, a loyal friend who always has time for others, a much-loved daughter and sister.But behind the closed door of her room late at night, she struggles with feelings of doubt and worthlessness and contemplates taking her own life.

No matter their upbringing, things are tough for young people these days.There seem to be so many barriers that get in the way as they seek to become positive, productive, and contributing adults.

Fortunately,Robbie and Keisha – and thousands of youth like them in Marion County – have a champion in their corner that is working hard to make sure they have the supports, the opportunities, and the experiences they need to overcome the barriers they face and achieve success in education, work, and life.That champion is MCCOY, otherwise known as the Marion County Commission on Youth, Inc.

The Mission and Vision of MCCOY Inc.

MCCOY’s mission is to champion the positive development of youth through leadership on key issues and support of the youth worker community.MCCOY’s purpose is simple:we believe that every young person wants to be a wonderful person who can achieve success in education, work, and life.So, we support and strengthen the agencies and individuals who work with youth so that they can do a more effective job of providing every young person with the supports, experiences, opportunities, and relationships that help them reach adulthood ready for life.

To understand the value MCCOY brings to the community, imaginewaking up one morning and there is no electricity, no water, and no gas in your home.You go out the door and there are no streets, no traffic signals, no police, and no fire protection.You power up your smartphone, but there is no internet connection!What would daily existence be like if the entire vital infrastructure that supports your life was suddenly gone?MCCOY provides the vital infrastructure which undergirds the hundreds of community, neighborhood, and faith-based youth development programs that serve thousands of children and youth in our community every single day. With these supports, youth can be confident that they will always have access to the help they need to navigate the process of growing up well.

MCCOY’s vision for Indianapolis and its young people is bold:we want every youth – no matter their income, their race, their culture, or their gender – to have equal access to all the supports and programs they need to develop into positive, productive, and contributing adult citizens of a vibrant community.

History of MCCOY

In 1986, at the request of the late Mayor Bill Hudnut, the Community Services Council of the United Way of Central Indiana launched the Youth Services Project with the goal to address three goals:

• Develop a plan to coordinate services for youth between and among the various systems serving youth and the funding sources.
• Analyze the need for before- and after-school programs and the various options to do that.
• Identify the needs of youth that were not being met or not adequately being met by existing services and systems.

Various task forces met over a two-year period, and in early 1988, they issueda three-volumesreport including results and recommendations to address the issues identified throughout the process.In short, they indicated that services and systems were not well-coordinated; there existed quite a number (though not enough)of out-of-school time activities and program for youth; and that there were a number of youth developmental needs that were going unmet as a result of the failure of the systems.

Key to the implementation of the recommendations set forth by the Youth Services Project was the formation of the Greater Indianapolis Commission on Youth.The Commission, according to the report:

“…is not intended to accomplish everything that is recommended in the three reports. However, it is intended to provide continuing impetus and legitimacy to collaborative planning and implementation efforts…. More than legitimacy, the Commission is expected to hold community institutions accountable for working together, in accordance with agreed upon plans and policies, for the benefit of youth and their families.”

While the Youth Services Project report envisioned the Commission to be a public-private partnership, the reality of politics eventually won out and the Marion County Commission on Youth was established as part of city-county government in late 1988 by ordinance of the City-County Council under the management of the Mayor’s Office of Family and Children (a city department that no longer exists). MCCOY struggled in its early years to gain traction; it seemed to be one of those good ideas that has widespread support but no real power or authority to make things happen at a systemic level, which is where the lack of coordination and cooperation has to be dealt with if there is any hope of change.

Differing agendas, opinions about prioritizing issues, spotty meeting attendance by some major participants, constant leadership turnover, and an unclear mandate were all reasons the Commission struggled to achieve its mission. In an attempt to gain relevance, the Commission began to dabble in providing direct services, which put it into competition with those entities with which it was supposed to be collaborating and into an area where it lacked expertise. This, its reputation was further damaged.

In 1992, Stephen Goldsmith was sworn in as Mayor of Indianapolis and appointed a new chair for MCCOY: John Neighbours, an attorney with Baker and Daniels. Mayor Goldsmith was an advocate of both privatization and government effectiveness, and he saw MCCOY as a prime candidate for both of those areas. The Commission, under Neighbours, began to examine its options and started to look at what it would take to make MCCOY its own independent entity. In April 1992, they petitioned the Council to rescind the ordinance that established MCCOY as part of city-county government. Furthermore, they approached local funders like Lilly Endowment, Indianapolis Foundation, and the United Way to secure support for a year of operations to see if they could make the Commission work as it was conceived to do so; wrote articles of incorporation and bylaws and filed for incorporation as a nonprofit in the State of Indiana; applied to the Internal Revenue Service for 501(c)(3) status; and launched a search for an executive director. In November, John Brandon was hired as the Marion County Commission on Youth, Inc.’s first executive director and began work on December 1, 1993. IRS status was awarded on January 3, 1994 and MCCOY was official.

From an organization with a limited budget, borrowed office space, and a staff of one, MCCOY Inc. has grown to a staff of 7, an annual budgetexceeding $1 million dollars, and a reputation as the go-to organization on youth issues in our community.For the past 25 years, MCCOY has been the leader of many important efforts that have improved the status of youth in our community,including:

• Blueprint For Action
• Youth Activity Directory
• Discounted Youth Bus Pass
• Homeless and Unattached Youth
• Top Ten Myths Campaign
• Reach Latino Youth Conference
• Alliance of Youth Mentoring Organizations
• Strategic Plan for the Child Welfare System
• Youth Violence Prevention
• Youth Employment and Workforce Preparation

We have not and will not rest on our laurels until our vision is fulfilled:that each young person in our community is thriving, learning, growing, and engaging at the highest possible level, putting them firmly on the road to success.

MCCOY’s Current Work

We serve our community according to the four strategic roles; we are a resource, advocate, capacity builder, and convener. These roles, which are key elements of any effective intermediary, allow us to serve the community in a variety of ways.

RESOURCE

We believe that youth want to be successful in education, work, and life and that families will take advantage of the many useful tools available in the community if they know about them. As a resource, we provide program information, promising program strategies, and guidance for those seeking to serve youth in our community

• We are the first stop for those who seek information about existing programs and services that are focused on the positive development of youth.For 23 years, MCCOY’s Youth Activity Directory has provided youth, families, and those who work with them a comprehensive listing of youth-serving agencies, including locations, contact information, and a short description of the programs offered.The YAD is available in three forms:a printed booklet (10,000-12,000 copies distributed yearly at no charge); a free downloadable and searchable mobile app which is updated regularly (and is currently downloaded onto more than 2,000 devices); and a PDF document which can be downloaded from MCCOY’s website at no cost.
• MCCOY’s Community Calendar, hosted on MCCOY’s website, captures the wide array of opportunities and activities offered throughout the community for youth and families.The calendar is an “open source” resource; any organization can post events to the calendar, which is moderated by MCCOY’s Communications Director to make sure the information posted is accurate and that the activities are appropriate for children and families.Having such a calendar allows local youth programs to market their offerings to wider audiences and gives the public access to a significant amount of information in a single place.
• MCCOY also manages and maintains the Summer Youth Program Fund website.This website is the destination for summer program providers as well as parents who are looking for positive experiences for their children during the summer months.MCCOY staff updates with site with program practices, cutting-edge research, and program support materials for agencies seeking to serve youth in the summer months. The site also provides an accurate listing of available summer programs in both English and Spanish for caregivers who want their children in safe and supportive atmospheres.
• The MCCOY website is another vital resource regarding youth issues and program trends and includes information about events and activities, upcoming trainings, advocacy efforts protecting children, a library of youth-related topics, and much more.
• MCCOY staff members regularly contribute opinion pieces to local news sources, provide background information and data to print and electronic journalists, and post blogs on pertinent youth topics for community partners.
• MCCOY staff frequently serve in the role of connector and consultant for youth programs seeking partners and collaborator to carry out new initiatives that will improve the lives of youth.

ADVOCATE

We believe that the needs of youth must be forcefully and consistently spoken for.Being a powerful voice for the well-being of youth is the essence of our advocacy activities, which essentially can be described with three words:educate, advocate, and influence.

• The issues facing youth today are complex and there are no simple solutions.Policy makers and legislators are often asked to make decisions and set guidelines for programs that will have a major impact on the lives of children and youth for years.They need accurate, timely, and authoritative information and data that will help them make wise decisions.MCCOY has developed a reputation as a trusted, non-partisan, and unbiased resource that can be relied upon to provide what is needed, or to direct a legislator to a content expert who can.As the Indiana affiliate of the Partnership for America’s Children, a coalition of 47 state and local child advocacy organizations, MCCOY has access to a network of experts in good policy and promising practices of what works for youth that can be helpful for youth in our city and state.
• There are many competing voicesthat vie for the attention of lawmakers and community leaders, but none are speaking for interests that are more important than children, youth, and families.Nevertheless, our message can be drowned out by more well-resourced interests.To make sure the crucial needs of youth receive the attention they deserve, MCCOY is committed to enlisting a large number of allies who can help us speak with authority and conviction, including youth workers, parents, and community leaders who care deeply about the positive development of children and youth.Each year, MCCOY trains several hundred individuals with our Advocacy 101 and Advocacy 201 training sessions, giving participants the knowledge, the tools, and the confidence they need to make the case for investments and supports for children, youth, and families.During the legislative session,MCCOY’s Public Policy Director issues regular updates on proposed legislation that may have an impact – for good or bad – on children and families and offers actions that individuals and organizations can take to protect the interests of these constituents.
• When there is a legislative remedy either possible or needed, MCCOY staff members work with legislators on both side of the aisle to craft and pass bills that will address the particular issue at hand.In past years, MCCOY’s Public Policy Director has been instrumental in the development and passage of legislation focused on bullying prevention and teen suicide awareness and prevention.Additionally, MCCOY played a key supportive role in legislation to address human trafficking, increasing mental health licensure reciprocity, and strengthening protections and supports in schools for the prevention and reporting of child abuse and child sexual abuse.
• Besides our own legislative agenda, which is drafted annually and endorsed by MCCOY’s Board of Directors, our organization is frequently sought out to be a partner by other human services organizations who speak out on a variety of family issues including hunger, domestic violence, education, and child welfare.
• Following each session of the Indiana General Assembly, MCCOY produces and distributes summary documents on the work of the legislature. The first document is a Legislative Voting Record, which shows how individual legislators voted on legislation that had an impact of children and families. Other documents include concise issue briefs on specific legislation pertaining to youth and families.Theseresources are distributed at no charge and are available for download from our website.
• MCCOY participates at the national level as the Indiana member of the Partnership for America’s Children, a network of 47 multi-issue state and local child advocacy organizations that are focused on preserving and expanding supports that promote the development of self-sufficient families and healthy children.MCCOY’s president currently serves as a member of the Partnership’s governing board.

CAPACITY BUILDER

We believe that our young people deserve access to the best youth programs led by highly skilled and deeply committed youth workers. Our capacity building efforts are focused on increasing the knowledge and abilities of the thousands of individuals who work with youth while also improving the quality of the hundreds of community-based youth programs that children and youth attend each day.

• MCCOY offers 25-30 trainings sessions each year to build the knowledge and skills of those who work daily with youth in programs all across our community. MCCOY hosts several Stewards of Children trainings to prevent child sexual abuse, and hosts other trainings that address topics such as social-emotional learning and mindfulness; Youth Mental Health First Aid, LGBTQ issues, gender diversity, program policy, and working with immigrant children and their families, MCCOY keeps youth workers abreast of the latest developments and the promising practices in the youth work field. Offered in both in-person and webinar formats, all MCCOY trainings have the goal of giving youth service professionals more tools to make their interactions with youth more effective.
• To increase the impact of youth programs, MCCOY offers the Youth Program Quality Assessment process to approximately 15 programs each year.In the YPQA process, each program fills out a program profile and is visited for a three-hour observation and interview by a trained and certified assessor.Within 48 hours, the assessor completes the observation instrument and scores the program according to the YPQA protocol, providing the program director with three to five recommendationshe or she can act upon during the current program cycle.The program will receive a more extensive score report later in the summer that will be used as program directors evaluate the past summer and look forward to improvements that can be implemented in the following summer and beyond.
• In addition to promoting and sponsoring training sessions, MCCOY’s Director of Training also works with our community partners to develop customized training for agencies that have special learning needs.Currently, she is working in partnership with a local program focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to develop a curriculum to help youth workers introduce STEM concepts into their afterschool programs with low-cost projects.She is also working to develop a program model to provide coaching and support after training sessions in order to reinforce the learning and help youth workers apply their new knowledge.
• The Summer Youth Program Fund is one of our largest training audiences with more than 180 summer programs included. MCCOY, the designated training and support program of the Fund, provides staff development opportunities at no cost to attendees during the spring months to help staffers prepare meaningful and fun summer activities. MCCOY also coordinates training for young people in high school and college who are employed as junior staff and camp counselors by many community-based youth programs. Our goal is to provide these young staff members with basic youth development knowledge and a toolbox of games, group activities, and behavior management tips so they can be successful as mentors and guides to younger children.

CONVENER