Bangor students present community survey findings to City Council

[0:07] Speaker A (unidentified): It's a very loud thank [0:11] Susan Hawes: you [0:14] Mathea Clarice Oguan: I'd [0:43] Michael Beck: like to amend the workout agenda to add a new first item certification of anymore high school students of their work with the community development staff for being organized before whatever mission engagement I'll say the moment in the second [1:27] Speaker A (unidentified): And I'm here to introduce to you the core team for stands for community organizing for representation and engagement and I know that I've spoken to this council before about the initiative but just a couple of notes about how it came about in our community development planning very often if you have to go to the community and ask questions about what are the salient issues and what are the most important things that we should be paying attention to. And it was clear that we could have a really good opportunity to ask some of our young people in the community these same questions. So initially this was going to be an activity where we surveyed students about community development issues. And then we soon learned that there's a lot of incredible voices that are just waiting for an opportunity like this. So it became something more over the last two years. We've actually completed Over 50% of our surveying activity that we began And the students are now going to talk to you a little bit about What it was fun to be a part of this group and what they see Good for its future. So I'm going to introduce to you our student liaison His name is Dawson Nevels. Dawson graduated from Bayville High School last year and joined the 14 as a liaison to help us build relationships and build excitement for the group, and he is going to talk a little bit about students and their year. So, Dawson, if you want to jump in. [3:13] Dawson Nevels: Alright, good evening City Council. Hopefully we all can hear me. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Dawson Nevels. I'm a political science student at the University of Maine and a proud resident of Bangor. I've always believed that young people are the future, and they deserve a seat at the table. But too often, however, their opinions are overlooked, challenged, or just simply not heard. And throughout my time attending Bangor High School, I've always looked forward for ways that young voices can be heard. There were always few to no options. So that's why when Councillor Beck reached out last year and asked me to get involved with than lead the Bangor youth engagement project, I didn't hesitate to say yes. The goal of this project is simple, to help Bangor High School students become more engaged with their local government and community, learn to not just think the status quo is how things should be, as well as be curious and ask the tough questions that many leaders would often be nervous to ask themselves. When we first held our after school meeting in October, I wasn't honestly quite sure what to expect with this group. We started with around 10 students, but as often happens with student organizations, participation fluctuated over time. By the end of the year, we had a small but dedicated group made up of the four remarkable young women who are with us here tonight. Meeting once a week from October through the final week of school, I had the privilege of watching these students grow into leaders, not only within their school but within their communities too. They met with city leaders, asked thoughtful questions, and worked to better understand the issues affecting their city. When they wanted to learn how city council operates, Counselor Beck gladly joined us and shared his knowledge and experience. When they raised concerns about public safety, Police Chief Mark Hathaway met with them and discussed challenges and potential solutions. Time and again, these students took the initiative to engage with community leaders, seek answers, and explore ways to make a difference. I am incredibly grateful to everyone who took out the time from their busy schedules to invest and support these young leaders. Their willingness to listen and engage has made a lasting impact. Act, but most importantly, I am proud of what these students have accomplished. Their dedication, curiosity, and leadership gives me great confidence in the future of our community and the opportunity for young voices to continue to be heard. Now it is my pleasure to welcome Clarice, Julia, Nora, and Viley to the podium. They will share the incredible work they've accomplished this year and their vision for the future of this exciting program. Good evening [5:44] Mathea Clarice Oguan: members of the city council and community members. My name is Mathea Clarice Oguan. [5:50] Nora Lin: My name is Nora Lin. My name's Byrie Lin. [5:55] Julia Gabriel-Uretta: And my name's Julia Gabriel-Uretta. [5:57] Mathea Clarice Oguan: And we are representing CORE, which stands for Community Organization for Representation and Engagement. CORE is a student-run organization dedicated to ensuring that youth voices are included in conversations about Bangor's future. Too often young people are viewed simply as residents of the city, but we believe they are also stakeholders who experience Bangor every day and can offer valuable perspectives on how our community can continue to grow. To better understand those perspectives, our organization created and distributed a survey at Bangor High School last month. We received about 148 responses from students across many different neighborhoods across the city. Our survey asked students about their neighborhoods, community involvement, safety concerns, and ideas for improvement. What we found was both encouraging and insightful. First, students overwhelmingly recognize many positive aspects of Bangor. When describing their neighborhoods, the most common responses included such things as quiet, safe, peaceful, family-friendly, attractive, and welcoming. In fact, in the third slide, in fact, oh wait, that's not the third slide, second, I think the second one. One more back. No, that one. It was that one. [7:35] Speaker A (unidentified): I flipped it so that you can see. [7:37] Mathea Clarice Oguan: Oh, it was, I think it's the one after that. Yes. So, in fact, 90.7% of students reported that they know their neighbors, demonstrating that many Bangor residents already have a strong community connections. However, knowing our neighbors and actively engaging with our community are not necessarily the same thing. In years following COVID-19 pandemic, many communities experienced periods of increased isolation, and fewer opportunities for meaningful face-to-face interaction. While those connections still exist, our survey suggests that there is an opportunity to strengthen them further through community engagement and shared experiences that bring residents together. Students also participate in a wide variety of activities, including school-sponsored sports, clubs, volunteer opportunities, church events, summer programs, and other community organizations. This demonstrates that Bangor's youth are already engaged and willing to contribute to their community when opportunities are available. These responses show that Bangor already has strong foundations, engaged residents, active youth, and neighborhoods that students are already proud to call home. At the same time, students identified several areas where they believe improvements could be made. So if we go to our third slide, second. I think it's the first data. Yes, that one. Thank you. [9:23] Nora Lin: The most frequent mentioned concern was affordable housing, which accounted for 48% of all concerns identified by the students. Other commonly mentioned concerns included sidewalk conditions, public safety, school safety, and crime. Students were also asked about safety with their schools. schools. While 62.8% reported feeling safe at school, 37.1% reported that they did not. Although a majority feel safe, more than one-third of respondents still have concerns regarding safety. Students were also asked how much they felt Bangor could improve quality of life on a scale from 0 to 10. The average response was 5.59 out of 10. This suggests that while students appreciate many aspects of Bangor, they also see opportunities to strengthen their community. One of the most interesting findings from our survey is that students simultaneously described Bangor as safe, peaceful, and welcoming while also identifying concerns related to housing, safety, and infrastructure. This tells us that students are not asking Wingward to become a different city. Rather, they want the city to preserve the qualities they already value while continuing to improve areas that need attention. And one thing that stood out to us throughout the survey was that students did not simply point out problems. Many responders responses reflect a desire to stronger community connections greater neighborhood pride clear cleaner public spaces and more opportunities to become involved because of that core belief believes that one of the most effective investments we make is not only addressing individual concerns but also strengthening and reclaiming the sense of community that's already exists within Bangor. Based on data, we believed initiatives that increase community participation can help address multiple goals at once. Strengthening neighborhood connections, encouraging volunteerism, improving public spaces, places and increasing civil pride. Our organization hopes to organize community cleanup events that bring together students, families, local organizations, and residents. These events will improve neighborhood appearance while also creating opportunities for people to connect with one another. They will also provide volunteer opportunities for students through organizations such as National Orange Society and other community groups. [12:44] Julia Gabriel-Uretta: We envision partnering with existing organizations such as Bangor Beautiful and other community groups already working to improve the city. By collaborating rather than competing, we can maximize our impact and build upon work that has already been done. We would also like to support beautification efforts including projects such as murals, community improvement initiatives, and events that encourage civic pride. Additionally we hope to develop community merchandise with all proceeds being reinvested into future events and projects. This would create a sustainable cycle for community engagement and support, allowing future initiatives to continue beyond any initial funding and reducing reliance on future city resources. If we go to slide five, okay, ultimately the data shows that Bangor's youth care deeply about their city. They value the safety, peace, and sense of community that Bangor provides. They recognize challenges that still exist. Most importantly, they want opportunities to contribute and be part of the solution. True core, our goal is to transform student perspectives into meaningful action and create strong connections between youth, residents, organizations, and local government. Thank you for your time, and thank you for recognizing that bangers youth are not only the future of our city but active members of his present. Thank you. Thank you. We [14:15] Speaker A (unidentified): We are prepared to present the students with the founding award for the core team and we would love it if you all would be willing to [14:27] Susan Hawes: take a picture with the students. That'd be okay. All right, where would you like some, Robin? Yeah, all right, you go down front. Yep, just trying to squeeze something. You don't have to do that. [16:12] Speaker A (unidentified): I just want to know if there'll be any questions before they are. We good? If you had any questions. [16:27] Susan Hawes: For them any questions for the presenters? Council Leonard, not a question, but I wanted [16:34] Joseph Leonard: to thank you guys for presenting your presentation, and that it reflected to me previous professional data sets that we the city have seen, and it correlated to the same data that you presented to us here. So not only do I appreciate that, I hope you don't mind, I hope I can give you some advice for the future as well. Sometimes when I was long, time ago, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, I was in high school. And there are one thing that has not change since I was your age is the amount of time and professionalism that's given to young students, young adults, kids that are about to become adults. And sometimes people are going to tell you when you bring up inconvenient truths to shut up. When that happens, just get louder. Thank you so much, guys. [17:42] Michael Beck: Absolutely. Sure, I just had a couple of questions. I guess the first question I have is, was there any of the results that you found that surprised? [17:52] Susan Hawes: I'm sorry, can you go to the podiums? [18:00] Mathea Clarice Oguan: Can you repeat your question again, please? [18:02] Michael Beck: Was there any of the results that surprised you? [18:05] Mathea Clarice Oguan: For the most part, no. We, as students ourselves, we predicted most of what we got from all the data since we're part of the use itself, yes. [18:18] Michael Beck: And then just a follow-up. Sure. And then a follow-up on that was one of the results that surprised me because I didn't expect youth to be concerned about affordable housing. 48% saying they were concerned about affordable housing was, I was not expecting that result. Was there any follow up conversations with the 48% about where the concerns are coming from? Was it affordable housing for themselves or worried about family or was it just larger community concerns? [18:51] Mathea Clarice Oguan: So in our survey, we, this is one of our flaws in the survey is that we couldn't have like everyone take the survey with everything being a required question so some of them may have skipped like this certain question and we wish that we had this option well they said yes we're concerned about affordable housing to specify what that exactly was but there was this other question about would you like to stay in Bangor and that we found that maybe there is a correlation relation between that and that wanting to stay in Bangor and it was like mostly half of them wanted to stay but the other half was unsure about it so that could mean something about like oh we're not sure if we really want to stay because oh maybe it's expensive here or we don't like how things are going on around here so we might not want to stay so it's fairly unsure what exactly this says but it 's a sign that we would like to know more about this issue just one final comment just thank you for [20:08] Michael Beck: your work, and I hope you'll pass the torch on to the next year's group, and hope that the core group comes back and share what they learned next year. Thank [20:17] Carolyn Fish: thank you. Absolutely. From the demographics you chose to distribute the questionnaire in the student body at large at Bangor High, what percentage of the student body got the survey and [20:34] Mathea Clarice Oguan: what percentage responded? So what we did was we had a QR code all across the school because most students, well, all of them have their own devices, like Chromebooks that they can scan with the poster with. And well, unfortunately, not everyone answered. There was still a very large group with mixed grade levels. There were a lot of freshmen, a lot of sophomores, a lot of juniors and seniors alike. Well, most of them were seniors. years. I don't have the current data with me. But I remember it being around 36% of the people who answered. So it's like that, it's about 10% of the school who answered. We would have liked it to be a required survey for everyone, but it was a bit hard at that time, and we only got the survey results last month. I'm sure that some people are still currently answering that to this day because the posters are still around the school, so yes. [21:45] Carolyn Fish: One follow-up question, and the questions were they specific yes and no? How did you come up [21:51] Mathea Clarice Oguan: with the questionnaire to kind of model your? So in the start of the year, we at first it started with community building, and then I mean team building, team building, and then we started talking about how what we want to ask everyone. Robin gave us the old survey from like previous years, I believe, and we looked it over, and we started labeling which one sounded mature enough for high schoolers, added more questions. And we also made a middle school version, but we didn't get to give that out this year because we didn't have enough time, but we would have liked to do that maybe next school year. We would like, ask that version to middle schoolers, maybe even, like, younger grades, but, yeah, it was, there was, like, 10 people of us, 10 people in the group that were discussing constantly, oh, we like this question, we want to prioritize this question, we should add an option to comment about what specifically it is, the only flaw, I said this earlier, that is that not all of the questions were made required, but we would like to do [23:08] Carolyn Fish: that next school year. Thank you very much. Thank you. Other questions, comments? [23:17] Susan Hawes: Thank you. [23:48] Joseph Leonard: Okay. Madam Chair, pursuant to 1 MRSA subsection 4056D fleet and GSC bargaining, 1 MRSA 4056D public works bargaining, 1 MRSA 4056A personnel matter, I would move that we go into executive session to discuss these three items. Second. [24:13] Susan Hawes: Okay, it's been moved and seconded, we'll do a roll call vote. Council Hill? Yes. Council Dean? Yes. Council Carson? Yes. Council Walker? Yes. Council Bloom? Yes. Council Beck? Yes. Council Bennett? Yes. Council Fish? Yes. And I am a yes. So we are in executive session.