Fargo Youth Initiative - January 5, 2025 Minutes

A Meeting of the Fargo Youth Initiative Members of the City of Fargo, North Dakota, was held at Atomic Coffee, 222 Broadway N #100 at 1:00 p.m., Sunday, January 5, 2025.

The Fargo Youth Initiative Members present or absent were as follows:

Present: Abigail Hamilton, Aiden Rosten, Ashley Hsu, Ava Bach, Drew Burris, Erica Johnson, Harper Reiniger, Isabella Meyer, Justin Jiang, Kaj Naujokas, Lucy Paul, McKenzie Olson, Minou Babingui, Reanna Quiah, Setiya Hamidi, Steph Kramer

Absent: Koral Siegal, Kallie Anderson, Lillian Dybing, Rose Ali

Item 1. Welcome and Introductions
Chair Olson welcomed Members to the meeting and introductions were made.

Item 2. Approve Agenda & Minutes
Member Kramer moved the Order of Agenda and the minutes of the September 12, 2024 and December 1, 2024 Fargo Youth Initiative meetings be approved. Second by Hamilton. Members present voted aye and the motion was declared carried.

Item 3. Elections
Elections were held for Chair, Vice Chair, and a representative to the City of Fargo’s Sustainability and Resiliency Committee. Member Kramer moved to approve Member Meyer as Chair, Member Babingui as Vice Chair, and Member Hamidi as representative to Sustainability and Resiliency. Second by Rosten. All Members present voted aye and the motion was declared carried.

Item 4. Bylaws
Member Kramer moved to approve the bylaws with changes as proposed. Second by Meyer. All Members present voted aye and the motion was declared carried.

Item 5. Discussion with Fargo Cass Public Health
Discussion was held with Fargo Cass Public Health staff including Public Health Nurse Madison Verghis and Community Health Educators Abbey Lang and Robyn Litke Sall. Members gave feedback on enhancing youth outreach for clinic services, tobacco prevention, and substance abuse education.

Item 6. Staff Report
Staff liaison Catlyn Christie referred members to the December 23, 2024 City Commission meeting for an update on the City’s homelessness strategy. She also notified members of a volunteer opportunity for the City’s MLK Jr. Day celebration on January 20, 2025.

Item 7. 2025 Priorities
Discussion was held regarding potential focus areas for 2025. Members informally voted and agreed upon three areas of focus to include youth homelessness, youth public health, and school engagement.

Item 8. Adjourn – Next meeting February 2, 2025
The time of adjournment was 2:59 p.m.