Jefferson City's Council for Drug Free Youth holds its next coalition meeting at 5:30 p.m. July 21 in the Hawthorn Bank Community Room off West Truman Boulevard.
"This meeting is open to the public," CDFY Director Joy Sweeney said. "We would love to have any community member interested in our mission or seeking additional information (to) attend this meeting."
Six days later, lawyers for the council, Sweeney and former employee Angelique Shaw will meet with Cole County Circuit Judge Dan Green to discuss the status of the lawsuit Shaw filed in March, saying the agency improperly fired her.
No trial date has been set in the case.
Both the meeting and the lawsuit occur as the CDFY works to redesign itself after getting a grant last October, Sweeney said in a recent interview.
The "Drug Free Communities" grant requires the council to shift some of its long-time focus, Sweeney said.
"We're supposed to hire a new person and transition from, basically, a nonprofit, program-serving entity to an environmental-change coalition overnight," she explained, "and that takes a little bit of time.
"Part of the process is figuring out all the documentation that's required - and there's a learning curve."
Sweeney, who's headed the CDFY since 2009, said she must attend three training sessions to learn "how to run a prevention coalition in a community," and already has attended two of those three trainings.
"Really, the Council for Drug Free Youth has been focused for 30 years on providing programs through the schools, to youth," she noted, "and now it's a whole different shift. ...
"We just need to, also, supplement (the old programs) with community work and community activity, where we engage the community so that they understand, because many in our community don't realize some of the problems that we actually have surrounding youth substance abuse."
The council's research shows the community's two biggest problems are under-age - "youth between the ages of 12 and 18," Sweeney said - drinking and marijuana use.
The Drug Free Communities grant helps the agency focus on those issues for "community level change."
"If all the youth are living in a community where everyone in the community thinks it's OK to do drugs and drink when you're 15," Sweeney said, "then we're not going to be able to change the activity or the action in the community by changing the minds of the youth."
The grant requires the council to hire a project coordinator - the position Shaw said in her 11-page lawsuit that she had been hired to fill.
Sweeney declined to discuss the lawsuit.
Shaw lives in Chicago and is represented by Jefferson City attorney Rod Chapel Jr.
The lawsuit said Shaw had been hired on Oct. 21, 2014, and signed a contract with Sweeney and the CDFY on Nov. 14, outlining her pay and responsibilities.
The lawsuit alleges she was told on March 4, 2015, that Sweeney had decided Shaw "had not been a "good fit,' and so (her) services no longer would be needed."
In its response to the lawsuit allegations, the council "admits that on March 4, 2015, (it) terminated the relationship" with Shaw, but denied her allegations of the conversation.
Shaw's lawsuit also argued she was dismissed for "continuously" bringing "numerous issues plaguing the CDFY to the attention of the administration, the board of directors and the national grant staff in Maryland."
In its answer, the CDFY denies Shaw's lawsuit allegations but, also, said among its "affirmative defenses" that "each employment action was based on decisions not related to (Shaw's) actions" as she claimed them in the whistleblower-violations arguments, "and, as such, (the council's) employment actions would have been the same regardless of discussions or threats made by" Shaw.
The council is represented by a St. Louis law firm, and Sweeney is represented by a different St. Louis firm.
In her separate answers to Shaw's lawsuit, Sweeney said she "denies both that (Shaw) performed her job duties effectively and that (Shaw) brought any issues regarding the Council to the Council's administration."
However, Sweeney's response added, she admits Shaw "made unfounded allegations about financial improprieties to the Council's board of directors" and doesn't have information about whether Shaw "brought issues concerning the Council to the national grant staff in Maryland."
The July 27 status hearing likely will consider how much research has been done and how much more might be needed in the legal process that usually includes getting information from each other and, sometimes, taking sworn depositions of various people involved.
Meanwhile, Sweeney said, "The grant does not dictate to us how to do the work (but) it does dictate what it can fund.
"It will not fund any programs."
The CDFY has been using United Way contributions to pay for those programs, like the "Safety Kids" that deliver a musical message about drug use and abuse to elementary schools.
"The support of the school districts and the support of the United Way are vital to us continuing the programs that we provide," she said.
Since its founding, the council's board had been providing an advisory role, with members being more free to miss meetings based on their personal schedules.
Sweeney said the switch to a community coalition means "we need people who are going to actively participate in (board) meetings and help get us on course - and keep us on course and understand what that course is."
Additionally, the board in January expanded its membership from seven to nine, but currently has only five members.
A nominating committee has been considering names of people to serve on the board, she said.
People interested in that work, who can keep the time commitment, should contact Sweeney at 573-636-6411, or by email at [email protected].