826DC

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE AT 826DC

Upon entering The Museum of Unnatural History, visitors are greeted thusly.

This is Harry the Swear. “Swear” is derived from swamp + bear. He lives inside the Museum, which houses not only Unicorn Tears and Primordial Soup, but also 826DC.

At 826, students aged 6-18 are advised on creative and expository writing skills. Through programs that take place both on-site and in school, the children learn to appreciate the arts of writing and storytelling through creating books.

826DC bases its model on the 826 Valencia program founded by writer Dave Eggers in 2002. More than a decade later, the 826 National program boasts eight affiliates, all of which are dedicated to enhancing writing skills and helping teachers create literary arts curricula that allow students to thrive. 

Tara Campbell has been volunteering with 826DC for two years. She started as a tutor, she said, and now helps host field trips.

“The thing that drew me here was the focus on creativity. It was an opportunity to get away from my desk and give back to the community.”

Click through the gallery below

In one activity, the students create the beginning of a spy story together, and then each child writes his or her own ending.

In another, the students work first in groups, then in pairs, then individually, to create a “Choose Your Own Adventure” story, inspired by the Edward Packard books of the ’80 and ‘90s.

Once a week, 826 volunteers and staffers do Reading All-Stars one-on-one tutoring sessions at Tubman Elementary. Tuesday field trips are in Spanish.

On field trips to 826DC, students are taken through the process of creating a book. They create a story while a volunteer types. An illustrator is on hand to draw pictures. The lessons often reflect what the students are learning in school, and each child is given the opportunity to contribute.

“We’re really working with the schools,” said Areesah Mobley, director of development at 826DC.

Tara recalled one student who seemed particularly quiet, but who demonstrated a great talent.

“She handed me one of her stories and I was blown away by the strength of her writing,” she said. “I felt like being able to see a different side of this girl helped me to acknowledge her potential.”

826DC student Amy talks about her favorite writing projects

ACCESS Youth

BUILDING A PEACEFUL FUTURE

At ACCESS Youth, the power of conversation is brought to light.

Executive director Jodi Ovca remembers a teenager who hit a man over the head. No reason. He just... bonked the guy. During a mediation facilitated by ACCESS Youth, the man learned the teen’s father had been deported, and that the boy didn’t know how to channel his anger. The man, who was a painter, offered to help the boy learn to paint.

Of course, not all the stories end this neatly, but ACCESS Youth’s pro-meditation approach to intervention is part of a growing effort to end the school-to-prison pipeline.

Since its founding in 2009, the program has focused on three intervention points: Truancy, alternatives to suspension, and alternatives to prosecution.

More than 1500 juveniles were arrested in the District of Columbia between January and June of 2014, according to the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, often for low-level misdemeanors. More than 10,000 students are suspended each year. Out of school suspension, said programs director Caitlin Ellsworth, is often a first, rather than a last, resort

“That’s not okay,” Ovca said. “There’s no reason for these kids to be seeing the inside of a jail cell.”

“There has to be a better way,” she continued. “I didn’t see any rehabiltiaon, any addressing the issues that got them in trouble. Instead it was ‘hey let’s lock them up until they’re 21, and then expect them to live a normal life.’”

ACCESS Youth uses mediation to help at-risk youth form solutions to the behavior that might be leading them down the path toward to the criminal justice system. 

“One of the remarkable things about mediation,” said Jessica Quaranto, an ACCESS Youth mediator and board member,  “when facilitated properly, is that just having the chance to be heard relieves a huge burden from both the victim(s) and offender(s).”

“It’s about them talking about what happened, coming up with ideas and solutions of how to fix it, what are future choices you can make?” Jodi said. “How are you going to make a different choice? You have to walk them through that. They have to come up with that. If they don’t come up with it, it doesn’t stick.”

The ACCESS Youth programs are in a state of evolution. In the next year, the ACCESS staff is hoping to extend the programs in existing schools and expand the reach within Wards 7 and 8.  

ACCESS Youth has implemented District of Columbia Public School-sanctioned programs at  and Ballou high schools, with a Memorandum of Understanding through 2017, and has formed a partnership with the ACE diversion program.

Last year, Ellsworth said, they were referred a memorable case from the ACE (alternative to court experience) program: A 12-year-old boy arrested for shoplifting candy – about $40 worth.  ACCESS facilitated a victim-offender mediation between the boy, his mother, and the store manager.

The manager talked about how he woke up at 3 a.m. to start his day early enough to go to the session. He reminded the boy that his mother had had a long day as well, and that people were there because they want to see him make good choices. The child didn't have male role models in his life, and the store manager told the boy that if he were ever interested, he would make sure he got a job at the store. 

 "We had very little we needed to say because the victim was so passionate about making the boy understand the track he was putting himself on,” Caitlin said. "We can get everyone to the table, but sometimes they can forget we're there." 

 

ACCESS YOUTH: MEDIATION STORIES

Several kids were throwing rocks at a car. Inside was a man, a single father who worked two jobs, and his 6-year-old daughter. The police came, and all but one kid ran away.
ACCESS Youth contacted the man, and asked him to come in for a mediation, explaining that it can be effective for the offender to meet with the victim. The boy was there with his mother, also a single parent. The father of the little girl was understandably angry.
“Why were you throwing rocks?” he asked the boy. “Why at my car?”
“The other kids were doing it,” the boy replied.
“Do you know where I live?” the man asked. They were neighbors, living just around the corner. Now, said the man, his daughter had something else, someone else, to be afraid of.
“I would never hurt her,” the boy said.
And the man asked the boy two unexpected questions: Have you seen “Antwone Fisher”? Do you like popcorn? A complete shift happened. The father came in angry, and he ended up talking to the kid, and offering to let him help out with chores around the house, and to watch a movie about a troubled young man. He could tell the boy didn’t have a strong male presence in his life.
“I didn’t want to come,” the man said. “I thought it was a waste of time, but now instead of me avoiding that block, now we’re neighbors.” ACCESS Youth gave them that chance.

- this story is based on an interview with Jodi Ovca, founder and executive director of ACCESS Youth. 

At one point, we were receiving a number of mediations involving young women getting into fights at a particular high school. On one such occasion, three young ladies and their respective parents met at the police station to discuss what had happened.
They had all been arrested for their involvement in a large school fight. There probably were a dozen teens involved in the main fight, but these girls were the ones arrested. They were not particularly interested in mediation and their parents were pretty frustrated at having to attend. It came to light that the school had already done a cursory mediation, which had frustrated the girls further, because none of them understood exactly why they specifically had gotten in so much trouble.
The message I got from them was essentially "Everyone is angry with us, but we weren't the only ones...and no one is listening to us."
None of them felt that they were really responsible for the fight, but they all got into trouble. Therefore part of the mediation centered on them beginning to understand that even if they did not start the fight, they probably played a role.
Inevitably most kids come to this sense of responsibility slowly on their own, as long as they have had a chance to really tell their side AND really hear the other side (as well as how their involvement in fights impacts their parents, the police and the school).
At one point during this mediation, I asked the parents to tell what was going well with the girls despite their involvement in the fight. This helped them to hear their strengths and know that their parents noticed these strengths even when they were getting into trouble. It also helped me to better facilitate an agreement that was realistic and supported them in cultivating these strengths.
ltimately, with all mediations, we want to know how the participants are going to move forward and avoid or diffuse this kind of problem in the future. The girls came up with lots of creative solutions to this effect, mostly involving getting away when they begin to recognize the signs of a fight, and not further instigating it. 

- this story was sent via email to The Daily Do Good by ACCESS Youth board member Jessica Quaranto. It has been edited for length. 

ACCESS YOUTH: TESTIMONIALS

As a community member and parent, I feel a deep responsibility to all young people and to my community as a whole. Mediation intervention and related ongoing support not only has the power to transform the direction of the lives of the individual young people it touches directly, but also broader social norms, school climate and community engagement. I have also learned a great deal about myself in conducting mediations and supporting ACCESS over the years. These experiences and my work with Jodi and her colleagues, have motivated me to go back for my Masters in counseling psychology and have no doubt made me a better parent and person.
- Jessica Quaranto, board member

As you walk the halls, one can get a feel for the energy of the students that day — which can tell you what to expect. My students appreciate that my door is always open to them and they do take advantage of this. In-between my scheduled meetings with students on my list, I can definitely expect several other unexpected mediations or conferences with students. From morning until dismissal there is a constant flow of student traffic, without fail. The good thing about this traffic is, it shows that the mission of ACCESS Youth is working, and students are buying in to our programming. Students who come to my office and express what is going on with them on any given day is a positive thing, because pre-emption is the key to our programming — especially the Alternative to Suspension program.
- Morris Wright, ACCESS School Programs Manager at H.D. Woodson High School

While there is some measure of commitment from DCPS to reduce suspension and reduce zero tolerace policies that result in deeply punitive measures, that's not always embraced by staff members who are trying to survive on a daily basis. These are kids who are seeing a lot and the staff are as well.
A lot of people are in a position where they need to react in the moment, but it can be a detriment to the youth to treat them like criminals from the get-go. They stand out in the cold and line up to go through metal detectors. The dynamic that the adults create is reflected by the way kids behave as well.
It's a process in order to educate people about other ways of doing things. They don't want to be a part of those statistics that are starting to dim the prospects for our kids who are already at risks.
- Caitlin Ellsworth, program manager

You’re not trying to say “oh, look, X’s feelings are hurt.” X can say what is happening. When a kid hears the impact directly from the person who is hurt, you don’t have to do anything.
When they hear the impact from the person who is harmed, there’s a shift, that’s the powerful piece about mediation. There’s not going to be a magical “ahhh…” but it allows them to dig down to the motivation of “how did we get to this point.” It gives them something to work toward. Sometimes, they’ll say what they think you want to hear, but our job is to dig down. They say, “I want to be respectful,” we say, “what does that mean? What does treating someone with respect look like?”
It goes back to “how do you want to be treated, what does being respected look like to you. You’re walking them through the experience instead of saying ‘that’s mean, don’t do that.”
- Jodi Ovca, executive director

Anacostia Riverkeepers

CLEANING UP THE ANACOSTIA

Student A: “Hey, why don’t we get up early during our spring break and put on hipwaders to spend a morning fishing tons of trash out of a freezing river?

Student B: “Cool, I’m in!”

This sounds like a conversation heard only on Mars (if/when they had rivers), but Anacostia Riverkeeper actually makes it happen on a regular basis. Thanks to the organization’s decade-long partnership with Students Today, Leaders Tomorrow, 180 college students from Minnesota, Kentucky and North Dakota sprang out of four buses on a chilly March morning to help clean up Anacostia tributary Lower Beaver Dam Creek. The students joined community partners such as the Anacostia Watershed Society, Friends of Lower Beaver Dam Creek, Friends of Quincy Run, and Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake for the first Clean Waterways Cleanup of the season.

Cheverly mayor Michael Callahan (known to constituents simply as “Mayor Mike”) and councilmember Mary Jane Coolen went beyond merely welcoming the volunteers: both officials participated hands-on in the cleanup, proving that Mayor Mike, as Coolen put it, “can work with numbers as well as trash.”

Volunteers extracted cans, bottles, metal beams, a vacuum cleaner, an old computer monitor and a 47-pound tire from the water. Four local children (with adult supervision and excused from school, not to worry) excavated a bicycle that had been completely buried in the riverbank.

ADVOCACY. ACCESS. ACTION

The group’s cleanups have an impact beyond mere beautification. As “Riverkeeper” Mike Bolinder explained, their goal is to provide information policymakers need to make the right environmental decisions for the future: “All of the trash gets sorted and weighed (a process we call characterization) and the data is used for policy making. When somebody asks, ‘how is the 5 cent bag fee working?’ for example, we have data to give an accurate answer.”

Anacostia Riverkeeper is a relatively small group with big goal: a fishable, swimmable Anacostia River. Long-time residents of DC who may be tempted to scoff, take heed: Thursday Night Kayaking and Friday Night Fishing are happening here and now. As of late March, the organization’s Clean Waterways volunteer program has removed 13,696 pounds of trash. Riverkeeper also trains River Watchers, community members who monitor and report pollution in the Anacostia (“River Watcher” superhero suit and cape not included).

The organization’s most striking quality—aside from its cheerful dispatch of endless amounts of garbage—is its collaborative approach. When you speak with anyone from the group, other organizations roll into the conversation like currents in the river: Anacostia Waterkeeper Alliance, Groundwork Anacostia River DC, Earth Conversation Corps and the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Committee to name just a few.

“We work hard to form lasting partnerships with groups that have complimentary skills and assets,” said Bolinder. “The collaborative effect can make one idea grow into literally thousands of volunteers, tens of thousands of hours of sweat equity and millions of pounds of trash being removed from a hurting waterway.”

With its manifold projects, talented staff and committed community partners, Anacostia Riverkeepers is truly living up the mission stated front and center on its website: “Advocacy. Access. Action.”

PICTURES FROM THE ANACOSTIA
 

About the Author: Tara Campbell is a crossover sci-fi writer living in Washington, DC. She volunteers her time for literacy organizations such as 826DC and the Books Alive! Washington Writers Conference. Follow her on Twitter at @TaraCampbellCom.

Reading Partners

 

"I GOT THIS!"
READING PARTNERS

When nine-year-old Nathan arrived at Reading Partners, he didn’t like to read, and he hated to read aloud. Reading, said executive director Karen Gardner, caused Nathan a lot of insecurity and fear.

But just one year later, Nathan was asked to read in front of an audience of 200 at the White House. Karen recalled the night.

“Are you nervous?” a staff member asked Nathan as he prepared to speak.

Clothed in a business suit, a confident Nathan beamed with excitement and replied, “No, I got this!”  

Nathan’s story is not unique to students who work with Reading Partners, a nonprofit organization dedicated to combatting illiteracy and helping students become lifelong learners.

“Reading is the foundation for everything else in school,” Karen said. “In third or fourth grade, teachers aren’t focusing on teaching kids how to read. They are expected to already know how. We want to make sure that our students are proficient, so that they can master the other subjects. Learning to read is critical for being an independent learner and being successful in school and in life.”

Eighty-seven percent of students who go through the program are able to narrow their achievement gap in reading, and nearly 100 percent accelerate their rate of learning. 

Reading Partners pairs K-4 students who are anywhere from half to two-and-a-half grade levels behind in reading with reading tutors. Volunteers work with students one-on-one until they become skilled readers. These volunteers work with students weekly, using individually prepared lessons. 

“You just have to want to help,” said Alexis Holdman, who has been volunteering with Reading Partners for the two-and-a-half years. “The kids are just looking for someone who wants to work with them, and who will try to relate to them, and listen to them. It’s a great challenge.”

A native of Denver, Colo., Alexis said she was a newcomer to DC, looking for “things to do to fill my time.” A friend at a book club referred her to Reading Partners, and she became involved soon thereafter. 

Despite some initial nerves, Alexis quickly developed a strong rapport with her students. One even sent her a thank you card during the summer. “It just felt really good,” she said.

Reading Partners has branches in eight states and the District of Columbia. The DC branch pairs volunteers with students from 15 Title 1 schools. 

Each student, Karen said, is given an individualized plan. 

“The goal is to work towards proficiency. Volunteers help students work on a specific skill each lesson. If students don’t pass that skill, they can repeat the lesson until they do.”

“Our hope,” she added, “is that each student would become like Nathan and say, “I got this!” in any situation.”

 

THREE QUESTIONS...
READING PARTNERS
 

Tutor Dave works with student Emmanuel./Photo courtesy of Reading Partners

Three questions with executive director Karen Gardner

What are your hopes for your volunteers?
We hope that it doesn’t end with the one-on-one tutoring session. The literacy challenge in America is huge. We hope that we are building champions for this issue. Volunteers unlock incredible opportunity for our students.

What new programs, if any, are you either piloting or planning?
We are focusing on continued growth and expansion with the DC public schools. Recently, we were selected as a priority partner of the Empowering Males of Color initiative. We hope that partnership will open up additional volunteer pools.

What kinds of volunteers are you looking for?
We have volunteers from all walks of life. Some volunteers are teenagers. Others are retired businessmen or working professionals. We are especially looking for people with flexible schedules. Every volunteer is a piece of the puzzle.

Alexis works with her student, Jada/Photo courtesy of Reading Partners

Three questions with volunteer Alexis Holdman

What is the book, if any, that made you fall in love with reading?
There are a couple of books that I remember. One is a "Wrinkle in Time, (another is) "Jubilee." I remember loving the story. (Also,) "The Diary of Anne Frank." Given the opportunity, I would always go back to them. The feeling stays with you.

What’s your hope for the students you tutor?
That they will continue to read, that they will find it enjoyable, and something that becomes a part of them. That they will see it as more than schoolwork and something that they have to do—that they will find enjoyment with it. And that they’ll share that with friends and family.

What would you say to anyone considering volunteering with RP?
It’s a great way to share you time, to give back to the community, to give back to kids. It’s something very instructive. Reading is such an important skill. It’s just so basic. If you can share it with a child, it can make a change. I’m glad that I found RP. It’s rewarding because it is something that’s so important. I highly recommend it.

WHY I VOLUNTEER:
READING PARTNERS

Before I learned to read, I was at the mercy of others to read to me. I didn’t like that so much so I insisted on being taught so that I could do it on my own... I was five years old. My sister taught me while we were commuting to and from school with our mom, who was a teacher. 

Once I learned how to read, I loved it. My sister is two years older than I am, and I would read whatever she read as soon as she was done with it. My dad once took the TV away for a year as punishment for bad grades (my sister’s, not mine) and I barely realized it was gone. I would often read with the help of a flashlight late into the night.

I still hate to come to the end of a really good book. If I let myself, I would lose days just to read a book or two a week. When I was young, I would re-read books multiple times (I’ve read "Roots" three times) to re-experience how good I felt losing myself in a particularly engaging story.

I realize that not everyone has the same passion for reading (especially in the age of technology), but I can’t imagine not enjoying reading at all.  I also can’t imagine seeing books as the enemy, or boring, or something connected to not feeling good about myself. But for children who have fallen behind their grade levels, or aren't doing well with reading comprehension, it’s easy for them to decide that reading isn’t their thing. 

Everything connected to learning on any level requires reading. Whether it’s on a tablet, a computer or a book, reading is the door to knowledge, and every state in the nation has large percentages of students who are unable to read at grade level. I want to have a hand in reducing that number.

I was drawn to Reading Partners because the time commitment is easy (45 min once a week), and you get to work one-on-one with a student for an entire semester/school year.  You follow a simple curriculum and get to see the child progress as you move through the different exercises. And the best part is that they allow the kids to choose which books they would like to read, and have a program for taking home books to read.

And I’m learning things too. Or rather re-learning things I‘ve forgotten along the way. There’s nothing quite like the pressure of having to try to remember how to define a marsupial to a 4th grader and drawing a complete blank on what it is even though you KNOW what it is!

Kangaroos are a marsupial mammal. They have short gestation periods and pouches, in which the babies are nourished and developed. A famous literary marsupial pair are mother and son Kanga and Roo from A.A. Milne's "Winnie the Pooh" books.

About the Author: Saranah Holmes is the founder of the Daily Do Good. When she's not busy turning DDG into the greatest thing ever to happen to the nonprofit community, or volunteering with Reading Partners, Saranah enjoys curling up with a good book.... anything from chick lit to memoirs. The best perk of any job she's ever had was when she worked on the Hill and could order any book she wanted from the Library of Congress...hand delivered and picked up with one phone call :)

About the Author: Chanté Griffin is a freelance writer, performer and avid reader. Her favorite book is Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. You can read her blog at www.yougochante.com & stalk her on the Twitter: @yougochante.

Life Pieces to Masterpieces

Slideshow of works from Life Pieces to Masterpieces. All images property of Life Pieces to Masterpieces.

 

BURSTING THE BUBBLE
LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES

“I want to make our cupcake a POWER RANGER!”

This is how a group of  3 –and -4-year-old apprentices (students) at Life Pieces to Masterpieces decided to decorate their cupcakes.

Life Pieces to Masterpieces is a program aimed at African-American boys and young men in the underserved areas of the District of Columbia.  Founded in 1996, LPTM fosters creative drive and uses art as a form of collaboration and meditation. The apprentices practice a specific form of art in the style of founder and artist Larry Quick.

Today, the after-school program serves 117 African American young men ages 3-25 still using an art method like Quick’s with a program built on the sturdy foundation of their human development system. The majority of apprentices live in Wards 7 and 8.

“It’s easy to live in DC and never escape your Foggy Bottom bubble, to never go east of the river,” said development manager Mignotae Kebede, who grew up in an Ethiopian family in California.

Typically, 5-6 apprentices work together on each piece. The process starts with meditation and journaling. Then it opens up to a group discussion, sketches of what the art will transform into, and finally, the group heads to the art room where they paint their canvases and stitch together a creation.

Eventually they add a title and a poem or story to accompany the piece before it is complete. Several of the works created by apprentices of Life Pieces are currently being curated and will be displayed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture set to open in 2016. 

 

FINDING YOUR MEDIUM
LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES

Life Pieces to Masterpieces has a broad definition of creativity and encourages the apprentices to understand that everyone is born with creative abilities, something they are good at. They just have to find the medium—whether it be yoga, music, poetry, science or hip hop.

But some of the apprentices find that they truly do have a passion for the roots of LPTM, in the art room.

“I get to express my feelings without judgment,” said Cateo, 11. “It just feels good.”

A seven-year veteran of Life Pieces, Cateo said he didn’t really get into the art until about four years ago. His favorite piece is his self-portrait.

As an International Affairs and Anthropology major at George Washington University, Mignotae spent much time traveling and studying development in other countries. She came realize, however, that similar issues were happening right in her own backyard -- that she could apply a lot of what she learned abroad locally.

“For me, I was always surrounded by black males, growing up with two older brothers and my father being one of 12 sons,” she said. “Then I saw Eric Garner — I don’t know if it was because it was actually on video or what, but it affected me. When I heard about Life Pieces in college, I had to do it.” 

 

SHIELDS AND CUPCAKES
LIFE PIECES TO MASTERPIECES

Through multiple programs and workshops, Life Pieces to Masterpieces pursues its mission to “develop character and leadership, unlock potential, and prepare African American boys and young men to transform their lives and communities.”

The Life Pieces Shield of Faith/Photos property of Life Pieces to Masterpieces

The Shield of Faith is one of the many building blocks of the philosophy behind LPTM.  Composed of a wheel of several colors, each represents a value. For example, brown signifies discipline and black, a combination of all of the other colors, signifies leadership.

LPTM uses the Shield to encourage noble behavior as well as a way to teach the apprentices symbolism at an early age.

The tiny cupcake-makers were decorating their treats to represent a value from the Shield.

“We made Power Ranger cupcakes because they’re leaders…” said Josh, 3. He looked around to see the positive reaction of the classroom. Then, he asked the ultimate question.

“Can we eat them now?”

About the Author: Olivia Rios is a writer for the Daily Do Good. She thinks Power Rangers are cool and cupcakes are even better!

Brainfood

THE BACKGROUND ON BRAINFOOD

Like learning about, experimenting with, or just plain old eating, food? Then you’ll love DDG's featured organization this week.

Suzanne Isack founded Brainfood in 1999 with the goal of “using food and cooking to provide high school-aged youth with structured activities during non-school hours”.

Brainfood programs teaches life skills and raise self-expectations through one of the oldest and central human traditions: the act of making your own food.  Brainfood’s variety of  programs teach young people the importance of healthy eating and nutrition while giving them a role in their community and an outlet for their voice.  Most importantly, they get to learn to make AND eat recipes like banana bread muffins, samosas and Shepherd’s pie.  The programs also include restaurant visits and working with guest chefs from some of DC’s most popular restaurants.

The programs are designed to meet the “capacities, strengths, and development needs of youth,” according to the oganization’s website, providing them with an environment where they can take risks without fear of failure and can learn new skills.  In turn, Brainfood’s students are better equipped to make change in their own communities.

 “One of the things that’s really stood out to me over the years I’ve been involved here is how community-oriented our students are without prompting,” said Carina Gervacio, a program director at the organization. “ It was a pleasant surprise how many of them want to take the skills they’ve learned and turn around and give them back to their friends and family. We are just giving them a place to shine.”

In May 2015, Brainfood opened its first retail space in Union Market called Brainfood Homegrown. The space is run by a graduate of the program and sells produce and foods prepared by Brainfood classes.

Brainfood Homegrown currently also offers a CSA pickup program on Saturdays and Sundays.

Photo courtesy of Brainfood

“We really felt like this opportunity is another way for our graduates to gain experience building their skills, and it also provides our organization with a little more leverage to expand at our own pace outside the typical funding cycle of a non-profit,” said Carina, Come get the homemade kale chips at the Union Market Stand while they last!

Looking further into the future, Brainfood is planning to create more ways for recent grads to get involved in the organization and have an even more empowering experience. They want to give their graduates a launching pad toward the next steps in their lives, building off the nutrition and healthy eating skills they learned in their first years in the program and segueing towards learning about being a responsible employee and gaining sales and retail experience.

Brainfood’s success as an organization promoting youth development has not been lost on the larger DC community. In 2013, the non-profit was the recipient of the Mayor’s Award for Sustainability. 

 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Brainfood MVP students and their families share a meal to commemorate the end of the program/Photo by Holly Leber

On May 21, Brainfood’s Class of 2015 Community MVPs had their graduation ceremony at their Mount Vernon Square site. Brainfood’s Community MVP program teaches returning Brainfood students how to lead their own workshops on healthy eating in the community. The program builds off the culinary skills learned in the first year, and places an additional emphasis on community service.

 “I learned how to cook on a budget and make nutritious recipes,” said Jordyn, 16. “I learned to project my voice and look at people when they’re talking.”

“It caused my baby girl to come out of her shell,” added Jordyn’s mother, Jerret Wright. “It has given her confidence—I appreciate the culinary skills and the nutritional knowledge. It’s done wonders for her.”

The students spend the fall designing workshops and learning teaching techniques, and in the spring identify community groups in need of food education resources and deliver their workshops to them.

A map displays where Brainfood MVP students served their community/Photo by Holly Leber

Over the course of the year, the 11 members of the class led 12 community workshops focused on healthy eating that reached over 350 people. Even more impressive? The 11 class members have logged 3,000 hours of community service in the past eight months.

“I see people respond to you. You illuminate things, you make things better. You bring light into my life,” Kim, a volunteer, told the students. “I don’t want you to let anybody say that you can’t do something. We believe in our core that every one of you has value and we appreciate the effort you made. It’s important that you know that.”

 

Q&A WITH CARINA GERVACIO
BRAINFOOD PROGRAM DIRECTOR

How long have you been working with Brainfood, and what motivated you to choose this particular organization?

“I started with Brainfood in 2005 as a part-time employee and was quickly hired full-time. I had always liked cooking and was looking for something more dynamic than the typical nonprofit 9-5. Initially I thought to myself that I would just keep doing this until it was no longer fun, but that moment never came. Ten years later, I’m still here! I’ve worn many hats during my time here.”

How would you describe your current role as program director at Brainfood? What are your typical responsibilities?

“I don’t teach classes anymore. I would describe my current role as kind of like the connector between all of the different spaces that Brainfood has, from the kitchen to the gardens to the sites. I coordinate everything so that there is continuity between what the program is and what the people’s expectations are. I also serve as sort of an organization librarian or archivist… when graduates come back they have all these memories of how things were previously."

What is an experience that has been especially moving to you?

“Brainfood started as just two programs: Brainfood Kitchen All-Stars and the Brainfood Summer Institute. Kids would be coming back year after year, but there was no real change in curriculum, and we wanted to expand the first year experience. We held a focus group with just the students and asked the students about what they wanted more of from us. The overwhelming response was that they wanted the ability to connect people who couldn’t come to Brainfood program with everything that they were learning. They also wanted a community recognition piece, where they could get more feedback from people in the Greater DC area about what they were doing—carving out a space for their voice and celebrating their accomplishments. Community MVP's developed out of that: an external-facing program that reaches outsides our core demographic and gives the students more responsibility, but also gives them a voice and allows them to give back."

About the Author: Marisa Weidner is a graduate of The College of William and Mary. She has volunteered as a teacher in Belize, and in homeless shelters in the United States. Marisa chronicles her explorations of DC on her blog, The Curated City. 

Ghandi Brigade

KEEPING GANDHI'S EFFORT ALIVE
GANHDI BRIGADE
 

Although often criticized, the media is one of the most powerful and effective ways to get a message across to the masses. The folks at the Gandhi Brigade understand that. Founded in 2005 by the late Richard Jaeggi, the nonprofit organization works to help young people in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area learn to use the media to promote the common good while becoming leaders in their communities. 

Gandhi Brigade works to honor and keep civil rights activist Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi’s “principles of nonviolence, awareness, and common effort” alive. The Gandhi Brigade consists of programs in which the volunteers learn how to master the following skills: public speaking, community organizing, art and graphic design, video production and photography. 

“We want to encourage young people to engage in community issues both from a local perspective and a global perspective,” said program director Ashley Simmons. “We also want to teach them media because this is definitely a tool that’s used to look at those issues. We don’t want to just talk about it; we want them to be active and [out there] doing things with media.”

Some of those issues include social justice, gender and sexuality, immigration reform, teen homelessness, and cyber civility and bullying. 

“I heard about Gandhi Brigade through my friends and when I would hear them talking about it, I instantly became interested,” said 16-year-old Satchel Young, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School. “As a volunteer, I have a few different jobs. I participate in the media activities, such as filming and editing [and I take] pictures as well. Also, I help promote Gandhi Brigade by passing out flyers and participating in major events.” 

Recognized as a leader in the field of youth led social change in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, the Gandhi Brigade is not only designed to inspire young people to take a stand against social issues that matter to them but to uplift and empower them in their day-to-day lives as well. 

“[I love] making video projects on issues in our community,” said 16-year-old Mussie Fitsum, also a junior at Montgomery Blair High School. “It’s a great feeling to know that people will see the work that I did with my friends and see our opinions.”

“The biggest thing I learned during my time with Gandhi Brigade [is] that young people have a voice that needs to be heard,” Mussie said. “These youth groups like Gandhi Brigade can help you project that voice through your community using media.”

YOUTH MEDIA FESTIVAL
GANDHI BRIGADE

The eighth annual Gandhi Brigade Youth Media Festival took place on Sunday, May 31 at the Silver Spring Civic Center. The day-long event included a panel discussion on race, sexuality and religion, personal story and narrative films by area teens, and an art and photo exhibit. Area organizations, including Passion for Learning and Just Kids participated in the festival. Read a statement by executive director Evan Glass for Montgomery County Media here.

Unless otherwise indicated, the following photographs are from the Gandhi Brigade Facebook page: 

A film is shown at the Gandhi Brigade Youth Media Festival

Noemi Sanchez and Prusse Kakpova, Gandhi Brigade youth mentors./Photo by Holly Leber

“We help youth to raise their voices” — Noemi Sanchez

Teens participate in a panel discussion

Attendees view an art exhibit at Gandhi Brigade Youth Media Festival

Mask created for Just Kids' Art with a Story, a project by nine young Marylanders who were charged as adults and incarcerated before the age of 18/Photo by Holly Leber

“What this is showing is how we felt when we were locked up” — Kevin, 23, charged as an adult at 15, came home at 19

Dancers perform at Veteran's Plaza, Silver Spring

About the Author: Princess Gabbara is a Michigan-based journalist and freelance writer (Ebony, Essence, etc.) You can read more of her work on her blog. She wasn’t aware that Gandhi was a member of the vegetarian society executive committee while attending University College London until now. 

Dreaming Out Loud

“WHEN DREAMS EMERGE, COMMUNITIES ARISE”

As far back as human history, food has functioned as a magnet, bringing families and communities together. Access to healthy, nutritious food has always been paramount for maintaining a well-balanced diet and longevity.  Unfortunately for many families who live in low-income urban areas, finding local fresh produce remains a challenge. 

Dreaming Out Loud, a D.C. nonprofit founded in 2008, believes in the power of food to “feed the dreams of all people and build more resilient communities.”

The initial goals focused on bridging the educational and economic gap in under-served communities, working in Ward 7 to provide leadership and character development to school-aged children.

“There is a huge utility in teaching core values to kids — it changes their lives,” said founder and executive director Chris Bradshaw. “We started to notice a lot of issues stemming from food that impacted our ability to run a successful program.”

Indeed, without access to fresh foods, neighborhoods end up facing severe and long-lasting health issues, which can span generations. According to the National Housing Institute, access to affordable, nutritious food is “an essential component of a livable and well-functioning community…and can enhance their broader economic and social health.”

“In kindergarten through third grade, kids were being fed sugary snacks and then would have no attention span after school,” Bradshaw said. “In high school-aged kids, we saw an evolution of the same issues. There was a lack of access in the community to healthy foods.”

After realizing that many of the social issues they were fighting stemmed from the same source, the “consequential issues surrounding food systems and economics in our partner communities,” DOL pivoted towards its current mission of building food equity. Bradshaw and colleagues believe all communities need and deserve equal access to healthy food choices.

They launched Aya Community Markets, a “growing network of farmers markets that help to provide access to fresh, local produce, spur economic development, and build health equity,” according to the DOL website.

Aya Community Markets use both the traditional farmers market model and mobile farm stands to extend their reach as wide as possible.

In 2014, more than 10,000 people benefitted from Aya Markets, and more than 70,000 pounds of fresh, local produce were distributed. Dreaming Out Loud pairs with an anchor farm partner, Crazy Farm, in Westmoreland County, Va. In 2015, Bradshaw and company aim to reach 30,000 people.

“Aya” is Ghanian for “the fern.” Bradshaw traveled to Ghana in 2011, and was inspired by the farmers markets of Ghana, which simultaneously support farmers and communities.

“We see the food system as a way to bring communities together and strengthen them,” he said.

Q&A WITH CHRIS BRADSHAW, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DREAMING OUT LOUD

1.   Have you experienced any challenges with trying to bring healthy eating habits into the lives of communities and families that aren’t necessarily used to doing so?

It is a challenge to get people used to the idea of healthier eating. It helps that awareness of the issue has grown substantially in recent years, especially with  Michelle Obama, the White House garden and the Let’s Move! campaign. People are more willing to try new things and get involved. It’s great to see the interest grow. We now have two markets and a garden space. I can feel the growth in the city and people becoming more aware… it feels like we are bridging the gap between desire and lack of opportunity. 

2.    Tell me more about the idea to use Adinkra symbols.

The Adinkra symbols are our organization’s core values.  They’re a way to take stock of the foundational elements of our broader teaching philosophy. How do you instill a value-based approach to your work? It also involves instilling performance values for how you conduct yourself. They are the compass for our work.

3.    Can you tell me about a specific time or instance in which you felt your mission was a success?

The instance when I felt our mission was being exemplified most was at our farmer’s market. Just hearing people come up and say how thankful they are for the market and the availability of produce and how much it helps them. I remember once last year a woman came up to me and said, “I’m so glad you this is here, this is helping me deal with my HIV and sickle cell.” That was a really touching moment for me. To have both of those diseases and to not have access to ways to maintain your diet — I couldn’t believe it.

4.    What is something you’ve taken away from your work with Dreaming Out Loud?

It’s taught me the idea that everybody’s opinion and value is unique and that you have to take the time to understand someone’s value and uniqueness.  What someone brings to your life and to your world is not always obvious.

ADDITIONAL PROJECTS AND COLLABORATIONS

Project Dream Green

In 2010, Dreaming Out Loud, in cooperation with Groundwork Anacostia River DC, developed and implemented “Project Dream Green,” a youth employment and training program. Participants aged 14-21 participated in environmental projects including energy conservation and maintenance of parks and trails.

Aya Accelerator

The AyaAccelerator is designed to help micro-entrepreneurs whose mission accords with that of Dreaming Out Loud. By partnering with both funding platform Clovest and Kiva Microfunds, DOL is able to provide even more opportunities for youth to “dream out loud.”

Aya Youth Cooperative

The Aya Youth Cooperative builds off DOL’s initial mission of character and leadership development by striving to provide a space for youth to gain work, entrepreneurial, and service skills.

DOL has established an urban farm at Blind Whino, which will allow 12 youth participants to gain valuable skills and development.

Produce Plus Program

In a blog post about the community partnerships, Bradshaw cited PPP as the key to much of the success DOL saw in 2014. The program helps District residents who are recipients of federal assistance programs by providing them with $10 per household per week to spend on fresh fruit and vegetables at the farmer’s markets. PPP functions as an incredible way to give access to fresh produce for low-income communities.

More DOL projects and collaborations here….

About the Author: Marisa Weidner is a graduate of The College of William and Mary. She has volunteered as a teacher in Belize, and in homeless shelters in the United States. Marisa chronicles her explorations of DC on her blog, The Curated City. 

Global Kids DC

LEARN, LEAD GLOBALLY

“I like to know what’s going on in the world,” said Khadijah, a student from McKinley Technology High School. That’s what attracted her to the DC Summer Institute, a six-week international affairs program organized by Global Kids’ Washington, DC Program.

A New York and DC-based organization, Global Kids gives youth from underserved areas the knowledge, skills and experiences they need to succeed in school and become leaders in their communities and the world.

The Summer Institute, said Wida Amir, director of Global Kids DC, “connects the disconnected young people to the best of what Washington has to offer.”

Most DC-area participants are from Wards 7 and 8, where high school graduation rates are below 50 percent. The overall graduation rate for Global Kids participants, on the other hand, is 99 percent. 

Khadijah was looking for a program where she could meet new people and travel—and the Institute is delivering. Talking with Australian students at the Australian Embassy has been one of the highlights so far, she said, as has getting to know the other students in the program too.

“The people in the program make it what it is,” she said.  

Although she isn’t looking forward to the long plane trip ahead, Khadijah is eager for the opportunity to see South Africa firsthand and “get past stereotypical ideas of what a place might be like.”

MINIONS AND DRAGONS

Wait, wait, hold up: South Africa? 

Yes! The capstone experience of the GK (Global Kids) DC Summer Institute is an international service-learning project. This year, fifteen students will travel to South Africa in early August to partner with organizations such as SA-Yes Youth Mentoring, a program that assists young people aging out of children’s homes and transitioning to independence. Additional areas the Summer Institute cohort intends to explore are racial and economic justice and LGBTQ rights.

But hang on, I’m so excited about South Africa I’m getting ahead of myself again. Let’s back up even further. 

Each summer, 25-30 DC-area teens participate in the Institute. Students normally find the program via its partnership with the Marion Barry Youth Leadership Institute, a program of the DC Department of Employment Services. The Summer Institute is classified as a job site in the District’s Summer Youth Employment Program, which means participants don’t have to choose between earning money now and preparing for a global career in the future.

Most mornings in the program start with a discussion of current events, followed by games and activities introducing central concepts and issues in international affairs. On a June afternoon, students engaged in a lively discussion about the history of the black and LGBTQ rights movements, inspired by a “Democracy Now” headline and buzz about a petition to replace the Confederate flag with a rainbow flag. 

After that, a boisterous game about trade and globalism: The Incredible Minions battled the Black Dragons to be the first to identify the company, and countries of origin and manufacture of products such as iPhones, Air Jordans, and Beat headphones. Turns out these kids are as good at tracing global manufacturing paths as they are at picking awesome team names.

SERVICE AND STOWAWAYS

Other Global Kids program features include guest speakers from organizations such as the State Department and World Bank, and field trips to visit embassies, Capitol Hill, or companies like KPMG.

Kela, a Summer Institute participant from Benjamin Banneker High School, went into the program with specific goals.

“I wanted to work on my communication skills,” she said. “And leadership skills. And foreign policy.”

Listening to State Department employees inspired Kela, who can now imagine a similarly “nomadic” future.

The DC-based portion of the program lasts four to five weeks, followed by a one- to two-week overseas service-learning project—all costs included.

“Normally we’re able to raise funds to send eight to ten participants overseas,” said Amir. “But this year, thanks to a grant from the Department of Employment Services, we’re able to send fifteen.”

At the mention of South Africa, Kela breaks into a wide smile. She’s eager to explore the country’s traditions, culture and history. Her family and community are excited for her as well, raising funds for personal expenses and offering to come with her in her suitcase. 

“It’s helpful to learn about what’s outside your own neighborhood,” she said. “(The GK Summer Institute) opens your mind so you can make connections with other communities.” 

Tara Campbell is a DC-based writer of crossover science fiction. She would love to join the South Africa-bound party in Kela’s suitcase. 

Shout Mouse Press

SHOUT MOUSE PRESS: TELLING UNTOLD STORIES

Meet Mariah.

Mariah is blind. She runs a fruit stand – with a little help from her parrot, Blue.

She is the star of “Mariah Finds A Way,” a book from DC’s Shout Mouse Press.

“(Mariah) overcomes (her blindness) by using her other senses,” said one of the book’s authors, Darrin Gladman. “There was a Santa Claus dude who was stealing fruit and the bird went to the police.”

Shout Mouse Press is a “writing program and publishing house with a mission to make unheard voices heard.” Working with other nonprofits in DC and Haiti, executive director Kathy Crutcher and her colleagues coach minority children to write, publish and promote their own stories.

 Darrin, 15, said writing children’s books has made him more creative.

“I discovered a sense of accomplishment and relief,” he said.

 Many Shout Mouse Press authors are also tutors for another DC non-profit, Reach Incorporated. Reach pairs struggling teen readers with elementary-age children who are below grade level readers.

Shout Mouse Press authors iron out plot lines.

 Several years ago, the older students went to Reach executive director Mark Hecker with a problem: Very few of the books portrayed people of color like themselves. “We can write books better than these,” they told him.

 “I bet you can,” he responded.

 Hecker approached his friend and fellow Duke University classmate, Crutcher. She had a decade of experience mentoring young writers, so she was prepared for the challenge.

 “Can we make this happen?” Hecker asked.

 And, thus, Shout Mouse Press was born.

YOUR STORY MATTERS

As young children learn to read they’re often drawn to stories about children much like themselves. Yet when non-white children crack open a book, most of the time, the stories they see are the stories of white kids.

 In 2014, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education conducted a study of 3,500 newly published books and found that only 11 percent featured minority characters prominently. Contrast that with our present-day racial make up: almost 50 percent of children under the age of five are non-white.

Shout Mouse writers at DC Author Fest

 How much harder must it be for kids to develop a love of reading if the stories they read are hard to relate to?

 Is it any wonder that many minority children grow up feeling like their stories don’t matter to the larger world?

“We have made a commitment to always believe the kids can do more and they always prove us right,” Crutcher said.

Some people might think that below grade readers are unlikely authors. However, Crutcher said, because of the multitude of stresses in their schools, these kids are often victims of low expectations.

Shout Mouse has also worked with teen writers at Ballou High School to create memoir collections geared toward teen readers. Their stories share the challenges of growing up in tumultuous and sometimes frightening environments.

M.S. Holiday (a pen name) contributed to the first memoir, "How to Grow Up Like Me.” Her essay, “17 Lessons,” is about what she learned growing up in a physically abusive home. She often wished she could protect her mother from further abuse. Schoolwork, she said, was her refuge.

 “People say to follow your heart,” she wrote, “but I don’t want any emotions wrapped up with what was already happening so I just had my knowledge.”

 

THE RIPPLE EFFECT

Ashley Cooper, 17, is one of the authors of “The Hoodie Hero,” a story about a young man modeled after Trayvon Martin. She said the discussions with other teen authors made her think about self-reliance.

“You’re going to have to make decisions on your own and think for yourself,” she said. “Mom and Dad are not always going to be there for you.”

 Shout Mouse Press books are now available in every DC public school library. Copies have been ordered for all branches in the DC public library system.

Some of Shout Mouse’s partner organizations have global networks. Readers in more than a dozen countries enjoy Shout Mouse Press books, according to the organization’s Facebook page.

 Imagine the joy of an underserved child, unaccustomed to reading stories about children like herself, learning that children in France are reading a book she wrote.

 The ripple effect continues closer to home as Shout Mouse authors’ classmates learn of their comrades’ achievements. This changes how minority children see themselves, and what they believe they are capable of.

 Ashley got a surprise taste of celebrity authorship while she was walking to school one day. She heard a young child who had read “The Hoodie Hero” call out to her friend:

 “Hey that’s Ashley. She wrote the book.”

About the Author: Terri Carr is a Washington, DC yogi and writer. She blogs at Yoga Soulutions. 

Young Playwrights' Theater

FROM PAGE TO STAGE:
YPT HELPS DC YOUTH FIND THEIR VOICES
 

The only professional theater in DC dedicated entirely to arts education has an ambitious mission: To inspire young people to realize the power of their own voices.

Karen Zacarías founded Young Playwrights’ Theater in 1995 out of a desire to use her experience with art to positively impact her community. Since then, the program has exploded. YPT has produced more than 350 plays and reached more 13,000 students, performing for nearly 100,000 people across the DMV.

YPT Student Advisory Committee/Source: YPT Facebook page

YPT works directly with students in schools in the DMV through its large array of program offerings. “I got my start with them when they came to my school through the In School Playwriting Program when I was in middle school,” said Nana Gongadze, a YPT alumna. “A play I wrote – ‘The Alligator Summer,’ a comedy about kids looking for a summer job - was chosen as part of the New Play Festival.”

Through playwriting, YPT “develops students’ language skills, and empowers them with the creativity, confidence, and critical thinking skills they need to succeed in school and beyond,” according to the organization’s website. YPT’s vision is to seek social justice by empowering all students, especially those who from underserved areas, to value their own voices and opinions.

"YPT (helped) me realize that I could be more than I already am,” said Anna Vargas, another YPT alumna and current member of their Student Advisory Council. “I’d never done creative writing before — I didn’t think I could write as well as some of my friends. YPT has helped me believe in myself.”

CATCHING THE PLAYWRITING BUG

YPT runs several different types of programs throughout the year: both in-school and after-school programs, a summer writing workshop, and the Young Playwrights’ Workshop. In addition, YPT also collaborates periodically with theaters, museums, and other institutions to create works that are relevant to current events. 

Each in-school program culminates in the New Play Festival, an annual “celebration” of the voices of YPT’s students. YPT chooses several plays from its group of students and partners each writer with professional actors and directors to put on their plays in front of a public audience. The 2016 festival will take place at three different venues in DC over the course of three weeks in April.

Image from YPT production "One in the Chamber."/Photo source: YPT Facebook page

“Seeing my play performed was the best part [of the program]. It was so cool to see how the play had come so far, and the creative choices that were made… I had never written a play before then, and the experience definitely made me catch the playwriting bug. I've been writing them ever since,” said Nana.

YPT’s upcoming performance, “Girls Write Out!” is coming to DC on Monday, October 19th, at the Forum in Sidney Harman Hall. Featuring four plays written by YPT student playwrights age 8-15, the production is part of the Women’s Voices Theatre Festival.

EXPANDING ARTS EDUCATION

YPT’s model of teaching has garnered attention from media across the nation, and the organization has won numerous awards, including the prestigious National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities in October of 2010.

The award was presented to YPT by First Lady Michelle Obama, and solidified the importance and success of YPT’s work with students.

“We all went to the White House and were asked specifically if we could bring a student,” said executive director Brigitte Taylor. “One of our students, Marianna, had written a play about missing her mom. It was so simple and beautiful. She got to go on stage and talk about her work and her experience in front of all these people, including Michelle Obama. She also got to call her mom from the White House. Anytime that I’ve been able to see the path a young person takes from beginning to end like that has just been so meaningful.”

In the future, YPT hopes to expand to even more schools across the area and reach even more students. “A lot of people are drawn to arts education—I knew that it was important because of the meaning of the arts in my own life, but it wasn’t until I saw that transformative power in these students that I really understood the meaning and power of the arts. I want to make sure every student is successful,” said Brigitte.

“I’ve learned the importance of being young and needing a creative outlet,” said Shelby, a YPT volunteer. “It gives kids the opportunity to trust their own ideas and tells them that what they think and say is important. The mission is amazing. As I was working more and more with the kids, I discovered how important their voices are, and especially how important it is to give a voice to youth in underserved areas.”

YPT student Mariana with then-CEO David Andrew Snider and First Lady Michelle Obama, 2010/Photo Source: Young Playwrights Theater

About the Author: Marisa Weidner is a graduate of The College of William and Mary. She has volunteered as a teacher in Belize, and in homeless shelters in the United States. Marisa chronicles her explorations of DC on her blog, The Curated City. 

RFK Human Rights & Speak Truth to Power

Editor's note: Our founder, Saranah Holmes, is especially excited about this featured organization because of her personal connection. She spent almost eight years employed by RFKHR in the positions of Executive Assistant and Online Auction Manager. Saranah continues to work with RFKHR as a consultant. She is grateful for all of the support she received when she decided to venture out and start the Daily Do Good, and will always consider RFKHR family.

 

ROBERT F. KENNEDY: A LEGACY

 

In her first year teaching high school psychology, Fairfax County, Va. resident Katie Gould led a short unit on serial killers.

“Not my favorite,” she noted.

To balance the scales, she asked her students to name people who exhibited the exact opposite characteristics.

“It got really quiet,” she said. “They had just rattled off five serial killers, and they really didn’t have anyone they could come up with.”

Around the same time, her father, then research director at the American Federation of Teachers, mentioned the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights (now known as Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights).

“There’s an incredible organization,” he told her.

“I was looking for this hole to fill,” Gould said, “and I came across the curriculum for Speak Truth to Power online, and was absolutely delighted.

Speak Truth to Power is one of several programs at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights. Founded in 1968 by Ethel Kennedy, the mission of RFK Human Rights is to continue Robert F. Kennedy’s legacy of fighting human rights injustices.

“Everything we do is geared toward realizing the legacy of Robert Kennedy,” said John Heffernan, executive director of Speak Truth to Power. “It’s about creating a citizenry dedicated to holding society to the highest standard of equality and justice. It’s about abandoning the role of bystander when it comes to human rights abuses.

Speak Truth to Power evolved from the book of the same name written by Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, and president of RFK Human Rights. Featuring interviews with 51 human right activists and defenders, the 2000 tome spawned a photo exhibition and a play, which has been performed worldwide by renowned actors including Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Sean Penn, among many others.

But perhaps the most vital offspring of Kerry Kennedy’s book is the Speak Truth to Power curriculum.

SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER:
IN THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND

Click on the image to link to a video, interview or lesson

Joseph Karb, a middle school social studies teacher in Springville, NY, is one of the educators who helped develop the STTP curriculum. He said one lesson he wants to impart to his students is that human rights advocacy doesn’t begin “over there.”

“I want them to leave with an understanding that there are human rights issues around the world,” he said, “and internalize the role of the defender, so when they have the opportunity, they are going to stand up for someone else.”

This word, defender, is key to the STTP program. Karb defines it as “standing up for others, sometimes at personal risk.” Defenders featured in Kerry Kennedy’s book, and as part of the curriculum include The Dalai Lama, Elie Wiesel, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Jimmy Carter, Malala Yousafzai and Nelson Mandela.

Click on the image to link to a video, interview or lesson

Christopher Buckley teaches high school American history and contemporary issues in Darien, Conn. He facilitates Speak Truth to Power leadership training with teachers: “We talk about educating the whole student and teaching students the importance of empathy and standing up for your conviction,” he said.

In his own classroom, Buckley has created what he calls the Ripple of Hope Project, inspired by RFK’s speech on apartheid, at the University of Capetown in 1966. Students examine the underlying tenets of the speech, and study STTP defenders as well as laureates who have won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award.

Part of the project is figuring out how high school students can be active participants.

“A suburban kid from Darien isn’t going to go rescue a kid out of the Congo, but what can they do,” Buckley said. “It’s about students becoming more aware of their surroundings and the impact their action has.”

After learning about LGBT activist Jamie Nabozny, Joe Karp said, a group of his students decided to launch an anti-bullying club. Some of Katie Gould’s students started a community garden after studying farmworkers’ rights and defenders like Librada Paz. Her students were invited to watch Paz receive the 2012 RFK Human Rights Award.

“The kids aren't just reading about some perfect person on a textbook,” Gould said. “Speak Truth to Power humanizes these folks who are total rock stars. I know it transformed not only the way (my students) saw the world, but it gave them a new perspective on how they saw themselves. It made them feel like 'why not me'?”

Students with Librada Paz (holding her Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award/Photo contributed by Katie Gould

SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER:
ACTION AND INSPIRATION

The Speak Truth to Power program also provides students with the opportunity to engage in human rights through media via music and video contests.

“Kids learn in different ways,” said Heffernan “What better way to get these kids interested in academics and to show they can make a difference. (These works) create empathy.”

RFK Human Rights leads the video contest in cooperation with the American Federation of Teachers and the Tribeca Film Institute. The grand prize winning video is screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

RFK Human Rights Speak Truth To Power www.speaktruthvideo.com 2015 - Grand Prize Winner Bloomfield Tech - Bloomfield, NJ Another Look at Genocide

Following a unit on the muckrakers of the Progressive era, Joe Karb leads his students in the creation of a short documentary, focused on a modern day defender. A group of his students had the opportunity to speak via Skype with 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi about his work fighting child labor.

Kailash Satyarthi with former child slaves in India/Photo credit: The BBC

“For some of the students,” he said, “it’s really transformative for them. We live in a pretty rural, isolated area. It’s easy to think in terms of numbers, not personal stories. When they hear the stories of people who stood up to others, it’s changed their outlook on life, they realize the world is a big place.”

The video contest, he said, challenges students to create something that can inspire others to action. “In a way, they’re becoming modern muckrakers themselves.”

Speak Truth to Power has helped educate and inspire countless young people to action, from the students who learned about child labor in cacao fields and launched a “reverse trick-or-treat” project, in which they distributed fair trade chocolate and informational cards in their neighborhoods, to the high school junior who was on the verge of dropping out before he became involved with the creation of an STTP video about Wangari Maathai, who created the Green Belt Movement to fight deforestation in Kenya. That video, from the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES school in upstate New York, won the grand prize in the STTP video contest in 2012.

“I am convinced that by education,” Heffernan said, “we can prevent human rights abuses if we bring together students who can form a citizenry that holds their governments accountable.”

In the words of Robert Kennedy: “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.

ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS & AWARDS AT
ROBERT F. KENNEDY HUMAN RIGHTS*

RFK Compass - Engaging the investment community at the intersection of business and human rights.

Partners for Human Rights - Our lawyers and experts join with our partners in the field to create real change, fulfilling Robert Kennedy’s pledge that those with the courage to enter the moral conflict will find themselves with companions in every corner of the globe.

RFK Young Leaders - Robert Kennedy called young people “the world’s hope.” He believed in their energy, talent, and idealism — qualities that define the RFK Young Leaders, a group of innovative, influential, and philanthropic young adults dedicated to creating a more just and peaceful world.

Health eVillages - Bringing lifesaving technology to those who need it most.

RFK Training Institute - Welcoming human rights defenders, government employees, NGOs, and members of civil society from all over the world to learn new skills, strengthen their capacities, and share their knowledge. 

RFK Book Awards - The Robert F. Kennedy Book Award honors authors whose writing, in illuminating past or present injustice, acts as a beacon towards a more just society.

RFK Journalism Awards - Drawing from both national and international candidate pools, the RFK Journalism Awards recognize writing in the public interest on the issues of poverty, political inclusion, and justice. The twelve award categories honor exceptional works of journalism and social critique in many forms: including documentary film, photography, radio, and cartoons.

RFK Human Rights Award - In 1984, Robert F. Kennedy’s eldest child, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, saw a need to celebrate and support activists whose work reflected his conviction that one person can make a difference and that each of us should try. That year, Kathleen founded the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award to honor courageous activists who spoke truth to power.

RFK Ripple of Hope Award - The Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award celebraties leaders of the international business, entertainment, and activist communities who have demonstrated a commitment to social change.

* Descriptions copied and pasted from the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights website

About the Author: Holly Leber is the editorial director of the Daily Do Good. A human rights defender she greatly admired in her youth was Elizabeth Glaser (now deceased) for her work in pediatric AIDS awareness and research. She wants to see more girls and boys looking up to a rock star like Malala than to insert-name-of-latest-celebrity-making-tabloid-headlines-here. 

Scholarchips

MAKING COLLEGE A REALITY FOR EVERYONE

Children of incarcerated parents are often held accountable for their parents’ decisions and left to deal with the harsh reality of growing up without a mother or father in the home.

ScholarCHIPS, an acronym for Children of Incarcerated Parents, was founded on the belief that these young people should be given a chance before being written off by society. The D.C.-based nonprofit exists to provide college scholarships, mentoring and a support network to youth with incarcerated parents, inspiring them to pursue and complete their college degree, according to ScholarCHIPS founder and executive director Yasmine Arrington. 

“It’s important to me that as many of these youth receive the opportunity to go to college and graduate,” Arrington said. “In the bigger picture, this is a solution to, and a sign of exiting, the War on Drugs era when so many people were sent to prison with lengthy sentences for non-violent crimes, leaving millions of youth without a parent, or sometimes without both parents, in the home.”

ScholarCHIPS was born out of Arrington’s, and her grandmother’s, frustration of not being able to find scholarships for children with incarcerated parents (Arrington’s father was incarcerated). This prompted Arrington to conduct her own research. In that moment she realized she wasn’t alone, that nearly three million youth in the U.S. have an incarcerated parent. 

THE STIGMA OF BEING A CHIP

For Raynna Nkwanyuo, a senior at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA and one of ScholarCHIPS’ first scholars, the organization has helped make pursuing her degree in public health and administration easier. It also helped her to break some of the stigma that comes along with having an incarcerated parent (her mother was incarcerated for five years) by meeting other youth in her predicament. 

“I’m very grateful for the organization,” Nkwanyuo said. “It’s provided me with a strong network and support system. Incarceration is a topic that’s rarely discussed. It gets swept under the rug, so I'm grateful that there's an organization that offers support to children of incarcerated parents." 

ScholarCHIPS founder and executive Director Yasmine Arrington (center) being honored at 2012's "Black Girls Rock" event.

Besides seeing the joy and excitement on the scholars’ faces at the annual award ceremonies, one of Arrington’s proudest moments is being featured on BET’s “Black Girls Rock” event in 2012. 

“That’s when the nation was introduced to ScholarCHIPS,” Arrington said. “I received so much positive feedback from the show and many people still recognize me and the organization from that feature.” 

BREAKING THE CYCLE

ScholarCHIPS holds several fundraising events throughout the year, including auctions, benefit concerts and wine tastings. Additionally, it participates in several conferences related to children of incarcerated parents and reentry programs.

ScholarCHIPS being presented a $10,000 match grant by the Washington Redskins Charitable Foundation. Photo credit: Sidney & Company

To date, ScholarCHIPS has awarded more than $30,000 to 17 scholars. Arrington’s mission is to increase that number each year in hopes that more youth will realize that college can be a reality for them.  

“When my scholars graduate, they’re breaking the cycles of intergenerational incarceration and poverty that continues to affect predominantly black and low-income communities,” Arrington said. “If given a chance, they can make some very positive, transformative decisions of their own. ScholarCHIPS is not only impacting individuals but their families, communities and ultimately, the nation.”

About the Author: Princess Gabbara is a Michigan-based journalist and freelance writer (Ebony, Essence, etc.). You can read more of her work on her blog. She also tweets @PrincessGabbara.

Earth Conservation Corps

ENVIRONMENTALISM AND EMPOWERMENT

The mission of Earth Conservation Corps, said executive director Mafara Hobson, is “pretty powerful.”

“We work with at-risk youth and help them reclaim their lives by reclaiming the Anacostia River and their community.”

Since its founding in the early 1990’s, the ECC has strived to engage underserved DC youth in self-empowerment through environmental stewardship.

“We see opportunity between the effort to save the endangered Anacostia River and the need to engage the young men and women who live in the neighborhoods along its banks,” wrote founder and co-chairman Bob Nixon in an open letter on the organization’s website.

Nixon, a film producer, started ECC after coming to DC to shoot a film about environmentalism. He stayed because he saw a desperate need.

“They didn’t just dump trash here,” Nixon told PBS’s Bill Moyers in a 2007 interview, “they dumped people here.”

Despite a rising real estate and commercial business market, the Anacostia neighborhood, and others in Wards 7 and 8, have been plagued by crime and high dropout rates. Unemployment in Ward 8 once measured the highest in the United States. While numbers have greatly improved in the past five years (11.7 and 14.1 percent, as of June 2015, down from 21.3 and 25.2 the same month in 2011), unemployment in Wards 7 & 8 are higher than the District rate of 6.9 percent, and higher still than the U.S. rate at 5.3 percent. 

 

RISING ABOVE, SOARING HIGH

Earth Conservation Corps challenges students to rise above statistics by providing the means and motivation to pursue a brighter future, for the community and for themselves.

“It empowers them to take charge of their own lives, and not just be another unemployment statistic or victim of violence, or someone participating in activities that aren't constructive,” Hobson said. “They can be and do whatever they want to do.”

The members of the Corps, 20 each year, must commit to 1700 hours of environmental work each year. 

Earth Conservation Corps programs expand beyond restoring the river itself.  ECC has paired with the Environmental Protection Agency on a water monitoring effort, and with the DC Office of Environment and Energy to restore the tree canopy in the Anacostia watershed.

60 Minutes features the Earth Conservation Corps

“It helps create an ecosystem in communities where there’s a dearth of conservation,” Hobson said. 

Other programs include a wetlands restoration project, and a raptor conservation effort. Nixon and the ECC have been instrumental in reintroducing bald eagles to the District, bringing 16 eagles to the nation’s capital between 1995 and 1998. Today, according to an article from the National Wildlife Foundation, about 6 bald eagles and 16 osprey nest along the Anacostia. A live osprey camera is trained on a nest beneath the Frederick Douglass Bridge. 

“That shows the progress on the Anacostia. We want the same for the community members,” said Sarah Nixon, board member and wife of founder Bob Nixon. 

 

MAKING CHANGES, TAKING CHARGE

Sadly, the birds have fared better than some of the young men and women. “There's a wall dedicated to the Corps members who have lost their lives,” said Nixon, “to happenstance of where you live and where your resources are.”

Angered by the manner in which their fallen compatriots were being overlooked by the DC community at large, ECC Corps members, alongside Bob Nixon, created a documentary called “Endangered Species,” about the plight of urban youth.

But other students have been lucky. Rodney Stotts was an early Corps member. Before the ECC, he dealt drugs on the streets of Anacostia.

“You can’t feel good about anything you have,” he told 60 Minutes, “because it was ill-gotten gains.”

Stotts was not available for comment, but both Hobson and Sarah Nixon spoke of him as an exemplary Corps member. Now a master falconer-in-training, Rodney oversees youth programming at Wings Over America, and maintains an active relationship with ECC as a mentor and advisory board member.

“ECC is about taking ownership and responsibility of your community,” said Hobson. “A lot of kids don't feel empowered to take control of their lives. Whatever happens, happens. Through the program, in having a responsibility to the community, they realize ‘if I can make environmental changes in my own community, I can also make significant changes in my own life. If I can make changes in my community, I can also make changes in myself.’” 

About the Author: Holly Leber is the editorial director of the Daily Do Good, and a freelance writer and editor. 

A Space of Her Own

SOHO GOES FULL STEAM AHEAD

 

Imagine a year filled with fun arts and crafts, yummy food, community service, and individual support from a friendly mentor, all culminating in—drumroll please—a room makeover to create a new space just for you in your very own home!

A Space of Her Own (SOHO) offers all of this to at-risk pre-teen girls in Northern Virginia. A Space of His Own, for boys, is also offered at Jefferson-Houston Elementary School.

“I’m happy to work here every day,” saidLily Rowney, VISTA Mentor Program coordinator.

A SOHO student and mentor work on a lamp/Photo source: Patch.com

SOHO provides mentorship and skills-building to at-risk girls and boys in grades five through seven. It began in 2002 as a partnership between Alexandria’s Juvenile Court Service Unit and the Art League as a way to counter rising youth crime rates.

What started as an intervention program, diverting preteen girls who had started getting into trouble, has since become a means of prevention, engaging 48 youth per year before they start going down the wrong path. Since its inception, the organization has served 212 students with a 98 percent success rate, meaning the students have not been become involved in the court system.

 

GIVING GIRLS A SPACE

SOHO Mentors, said Rowney, undergo three 2.5-hour training sessions. To date, SOHO has screened and trained more two hundred mentors. The current class is a diverse group of professionals, most of whom have advanced degrees.

Because the majority of program participants are African-American, Hispanic or from immigrant households, training includes cultural sensitivity components as well. Rowney described a recent instance in which a participant’s family spoke only Spanish, whereas the mentor did not speak any. Neither party let that stop them, and through the course of the year, they used broken English and Spanish to push through the language barrier for the benefit of the student.

The program provides the students not only with meals, supportive mentors, life skills and a creative outlet, but also a very tangible aid for their academic success: A space of their own with adequate room and lighting for their studies. Many SOHO participants are living in overcrowded environments with their families.

In the spring, students and mentors renovate a space in the students’ homes in partnership with SOHO’s sponsors.

If you’re feeling inspired, it’s not too late in the year to get involved. SOHO is still accepting new volunteers, and will have trainings in January and February. In addition, SOHO will be one of the featured organizations at A Night of Firsts, organized by the Alexandria Mentoring Partnership. The program on January 20 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the Charles E Beatley Central Library will feature mentors and mentees telling their mentoring stories.

Tara Campbell is a D.C.-based writer of crossover sci-fi, dreaming up new stories in a space of her own.

The Farm at Our House

THE FRESHEST FARE

Marc Grossman’s first experience working on a farm was in Ohio, when he was in his early 20's. Although he loved to cultivate the land, it didn’t seem like a viable career option. Fast forward a couple of decades, and Marc is the co-owner of the Farm at Our House, an organically-certified vegetable farm that harvests fresh produce in Brookeville, Maryland.

The 12-acre farm, which started in 2002, is located on the property of Our House, a residential job-training center for at-risk teenage boys. The farm provides produce to local restaurants and members of its Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.

Marc believes that local farming is a win-win for farmers and consumers: “Local farming provides people in the community with a sense of hope," he said. "People are looking for ways to grow food in a more ecological manner, while enjoying the benefits of fresh, local foods.”

CSA members are able to participate in special harvest celebrations and to volunteer on the farm along with the farm’s staff and the young men from Our House.

“Farming is something that people can come together around. It’s not just about learning how to farm, or working really hard,” Marc asserted. “It’s about having a common goal and doing something really tangible and really productive.”

The farm has three harvests throughout the year—in spring, summer, and fall. Produce pick-ups run from May through November.

BOYS TO MEN

If nature is therapeutic and hard work transformative, then Our House is the ideal place for young men in Brookeville, Maryland who want to transform their lives. The residential facility boasts rolling hills, a pond, swamp, and a host of wildlife—including a beehive and volunteer beekeeper. The residents, who come from social service agencies and correctional facilities, seek to redefine themselves and gain the skills necessary for life-long success. 

Over the course of their stay at Our House (which ranges from a few months to a couple of years), the young men receive job training, professional counseling, life skills workshops and GED preparation. But they don’t just receive; they give back. All residents volunteer in their local community to deepen their sense of responsibility and connection to it. 

In alignment with Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, OH seeks to “begin with the end in mind.” Residents maintain a strict schedule to develop discipline, a solid work ethic, and can experience the fruit (literal and figurative) that comes from working consistently and diligently over time. The Farm at Our House, a separate entity, offers residents the opportunity to learn how to plant and harvest fruits and vegetables.

“It was real rough going at first,” explained Ed Gould, the long time OH volunteer who started the farm. “They were not too enthusiastic—you don’t get a return for several months—but eventually there was enough land tilled and ability to grow things that the guys made a few hundred dollars.”

Gould argues that the farm and the house provide space for transformation to take place. “When some guys are there because they assaulted someone and are there to deal with their anger, they are going to do that. That they are willing to reveal that to me—that admission is the first step toward their own healing.”

SWEET APPLES: A VOLUNTEER’S PERSPECTIVE

Three years ago, a neighbor recommended that Amie Myers join the CSA program at the Farm at Our House. Eager to go organic, Amie joined and began to volunteer just a year later. Today, she volunteers a few hours a week, in exchange for the opportunity to pick fresh produce for the week, free of charge. 

“I feel so lucky to be able to volunteer at the farm,” Amie beamed. “Once I get there I’m always happy, and then I go home with a bounty of local, fresh organic food. You just can’t beat it!”

Amie shared her top eight reasons for why she prefers the farm fresh fare:

• The greens are deeper.
• The apples are sweeter.
• Everything is so fresh. It may have just been picked that day.
• Things are able to ripen on the vine, instead of being picked early and shipped.
• It prevents a lot of carbon emissions. It’s important for me to reduce my impact.
• I cook, every day, with fresh food.
• I like to make pretty easy things. I have a whole basket of six different varieties of squash right now. I’m enjoying thinking of all the things I’m going to do.
• Every week, the food is amazing!

About the Author: Chanté Griffin is a writer. In her dreams, she is a certified organic specialist who harvests all of her own veggies in her backyard, but in reality her solitary rosemary plant died. Tweet with her: @yougochante

Food Recovery Network

THIS IS CRAZY

 

The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that about 90 billion pounds of edible food go to waste each year.

Crazy, right?

Food Recovery Network  thinks so too, and they’ve gotten way past the goggle-eyed disbelief stage. They’re digging in to solve the problem — digging in to leftovers in university kitchens around the country to reclaim food that would otherwise be thrown away at the end of each day.

Since its beginnings at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2011, FRN has grown to a network of 155 campus chapters in thirty-nine states that have recovered almost a million pounds of food to date.

The group became a formal non-profit in 2013 with help from the Sodexo Foundation (yes, college cafeteria survivors alums, that Sodexo). In 2014, FRN collected more food than in the previous three years combined. By May 2016, they plan to be on 180 campuses and have recovered 1.2 million pounds of food.

“America is ready to change,” said FRN Executive Director Regina Northouse. After many years in the social justice arena, Northouse is relatively new to FRN, but she’s already noticed a difference in how people respond to her current mission. “My network has always been happy to help with my work, but the amount of care and support they have shown for FRN has been amazing. People want to volunteer, they want to learn more.”
 

ONE PERSON AT A TIME, ONE POUND AT A TIME

It happens one student and one pound at a time. Every evening, volunteers arrive at campus kitchens across the U.S. to recover food in a careful process that involves checking food temperature for safety, weighing and repacking the food, and delivering it to area organizations in need. DC-area chapters partner with the Christian Life Center in Riverdale, Family Crisis Center in Brentwood and the Central Union Mission, in DC.

At UMD College Park, collections happen most nights at 9:45, whereas another campus in the network has to pick up at 6:00 a.m. on Saturdays. These times are anathema to most college students, but FRN students are committed, and together they make a difference.

Food Recovery at Lycoming College, Williamsport, Penn./Photo by Jason Souder

The time, it seems, is right for food justice.

So what’s been stopping us before? Sara Gassman, FRN’s Director of Member Support and Communications, cites misinformation as one of the most common barriers to food recovery.

“Not everyone is aware of the Good Samaritan Act, which protects donors acting in good faith,” she said. The policy, enacted in 1996, protects food donors from liability when they have followed all measures to keep food donations safe from collection through delivery. “Another difficulty is that there are no national guidelines for what’s acceptable to be recovered. We have to research a lot of health codes.”

But for Gassman, who describes her involvement with FRN as “eye-opening,” all the work pouring through arcane local regulations is worth it when she gets to engage with students at regional and national conferences.

“It’s a chance to meet and see that we’re all part of something bigger than ourselves. We’re really facilitating change in the way people view food surplus.”
 

CHANGING BEHAVIOR

Food Recovery at UMD College Park/Photo by James Souder

This transformation isn’t limited to university campuses. FRN’s Food Recovery Certification program provides recognition for companies that donate food, and information for companies that want to start. There are currently sixty-five FRN Food Recovery Certified companies in this one-of-a-kind program.

December 1 is Giving Tuesday. For Food Recovery Network, it will be the culmination of a month-long campaign: #FRNDZY. It’s a friendly competition among national chapters to raise $20,000 and develop students’ fundraising skills. Prizes for winning chapters include trips for students to attend FRN’s National Food Recovery Dialogue in April 2016. And every dollar donated during this campaign will be matched by Newman’s Own Foundation.

Working with student organizations was her primary focus when she arrived, but since learning the food waste facts, Gassman said has started looking more closely at her own consumption. “Now when I’m at the store, I think twice before I buy something. ‘Do I really need it; will I have time to cook it?’ This work has definitely influenced my personal behavior.”

It’s also changed her friends’ behavior. Now, she said, when they’re out to dinner and they finish their plates, they proudly announce, “Look, no food waste.”

She’s happy to get people thinking about their relationship with food. “All it takes is one person.”

Students recover food after a football game/Photo credit: The Washington Post

About the Author: Tara Campbell is a crossover sci-fi writer living in Washington, DC. She volunteers her time for literacy organizations such as 826DC and the Books Alive! Washington Writers Conference. Follow her on Twitter at@TaraCampbellCom.

Place Thru Culture

LEARNING AT HOME AND ABROAD

“I know about Peace thru Culture.  I went to Costa Rica and learned about steam energy from the volcano.  I am going to study engineering because I want to know how to make energy from steam.” - James, Benning Terrace Housing Community, Global Trek Costa Rica in 2009

If you ask Adriane Alfred, founder of Peace thru Culture, this testimonial from their website says everything about the goals of the organization. Alfred started the non-profit in 2006 to give under resourced kids a chance to learn about different cultures and life options they wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity to experience. Working primarily with schools in Wards 5, 6, 7 and 8, PtC offers intercultural programming in DC as well as travel experiences to various countries in the Americas.

And the kicker: Through grants and donations, they’re able to offer this programming at a nominal fee—in some cases, even free of charge.

The learning begins at home with culture camps during the spring and summer breaks. Each camp is two weeks long, and campers ages 8-12 can expect a full day experience tailored to specific age groups. The mornings start with breakfast and a warm-up like yoga or reading. Activities to follow include journaling, cultural introduction, and classes in the art, music, dance, and cooking of various cultures (yes, with a chef!). Breakfast, lunch and snacks are provided in partnership with the free DC lunch program.

And how does a $25 price tag for a two-week camp strike you? This low registration fee puts an intercultural experience within reach for all students, expanding their outlooks and futures. “These kids have never been anywhere,” said Alfred. “By exposing them to different things, they will be able to make different choices.”

Peace thru Culture also promotes cultural learning through overseas trips. Destinations include Panama, Costa Rica, Peru, Canada (Quebec), Puerto Rico, Martinique and Argentina. With a maximum of sixteen participants on each trip, PtC creates meaningful, interactive experiences rather than mass onslaughts of tourists. In addition to the introduction to art and history that most programs offer, PtC also provides daily language instruction, cultural programming and immersion into local communities, as well as visits to areas of scientific/ecological interest. 

 

SUSTAINABLE ME, SUSTAINABLE US

The group’s Sustainable Me! programming exposes participants to sustainable tourism (a subject Alfred teaches at George Mason University) and earth sciences. Costa Rica travelers, for example, visit sustainable farms in the mountains of Heredia and learn about energy production at the Miravalles volcano, site of the largest developed geothermal field in Costa Rica. They also spend part of a day with a local host family, sharing a meal with them and joining them in normal family activities.

Tours also have a service component, such as working with ADE (Association for Development through Education) in Costa Rica to help rebuild the community of Vera Blanca after the devastating 2009 earthquake.

Engaging local partners is important to Alfred. This not only provides students a more authentic introduction to the countries they visit, but also embodies sustainable tourism by ensuring that the resources go directly to the country visited rather than an external company.

Service and exposure to the community is key to the goal of the program: to show participants other cultures and ways of life. One of the most eye-opening tour segments has been the visit to the San Blas Islands in Panama, known locally as Kuna Yala.

“It’s real immersion for our students,” Alfred explained. “There’s no running water, they sleep in huts and get to spend time with Kuna youth. It’s real immersion.”

Despite the rough conditions, the kids love the program. “The experience gives them perspective,” said Alfred. “They realize they have more back home than they thought.”

About the Author: Tara Campbell is a DC-based writer of crossover science fiction. She’s lived in Germany and Austria, but never in a hut or next to a volcano.

DC Diaper Bank

DC DIAPER BANK: TAKING A LOAD OFF FAMILIES

Caring for a baby can feel like a whirlwind sometimes. As if raising a child weren't stressful enough, many parents are left to worry about how they will provide their child with basic needs such as diapers. According to BabyCenter.com, disposable diapers cost an average of $72 a month. In other words, not easy on the budget.

The DC Diaper Bank takes a load off families who struggle just to make ends meet. In the District, 26 percent of children under the age of six live in poor families. DCDB’s mission is to "strengthen families by providing a reliable and adequate supply of free diapers to families in need," according to its website.

Diaper donations in the DC Diaper Bank Warehouse/ Photo courtesy of DC Diaper Bank

The idea for the nonprofit began in 2009 when founder Corinne Cannon and her husband Jay became first-time parents to a baby boy named Jack. After realizing how much work is required of parents, Cannon began thinking about mothers who are less fortunate than her and what she could do to alleviate some of the stress they experience on a daily basis. She was blown away to learn that the nearest diaper bank was more than 200 miles away in Pennsylvania.

"I remember being with a friend of mine in the park complaining about how no one had taken this issue on, what was going to happen, and why it wasn't being addressed and my friend finally said to me, 'Corinne, you just need to do it and so I did," Cannon said. "I knew I could make a difference and I felt I had a responsibility to do it.”

Corinne Cannon, founder of DC Diaper Bank/Photo from UrbanSitter.com

On average, more than 2,500 families receive 75,000 diapers monthly. To date, the organization has donated nearly two million diapers to deserving families. DC Diaper Bank works with 30 different organizations in D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Those organizations offer comprehensive family care and provide help with food, utility bills and case management.

 

DIAPER HEROES

Cannon says the DC Diaper Bank has little to do with diapers and everything to do with alleviating stress and indirectly adding income to families' budget: Rather than purchasing diapers, they’re able to put that money toward food and other essentials.  

The gift of art/Photo courtesy of DC Diaper Bank

"What we want to do is work with one-stop shop social service agencies and use diapers as a way to get families to engage," Cannon said. "We know that families will reach out for diapers in a way they will not reach out for food and other services simply because they don't have another outlet."

As part of its Baby Pantry: Food & Other Essentials program, the DC Diaper Bank accepts tampons and pads, formula, baby food jars and pouches, shampoo and conditioner, pacifiers, bibs, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and laundry detergent, among many other useful items. Over the past two years alone, the Baby Pantry program has donated $105,000 worth of items. 

The organization's community service was recently recognized by CNN Heroes. The nearly two-minute video highlighting the DC Diaper Bank’s work garnered lots of attention. 

“We got calls and emails from all over the country from supporters, moms and dads in search of diapers, and folks wanting to know more about our work,” Cannon said. “More than 30 people contacted us to see how they could start a diaper bank in the community.”

 

GIVE A YOU-KNOW-WHAT

Much of the DC Diaper Bank's success is due in part to its hard-working volunteers, like Rick Bacon. A private tutor and father of an almost four-year-old boy and 5-month-old baby girl, Bacon coordinates the warehouse. His responsibilities include getting an accurate count of the diapers and making sure they’re packaged correctly before they’re shipped out.  

Bacon was raised to give back and has done so for many years, but lending his time to the DC Diaper Bank has been an eye-opening experience, especially now that he’s a father of two small children. “There’s really no one type of person who needs help,” he said. “Oftentimes when people have an image of who would need help with diapers, they may think of a single mother who’s in bad circumstances, but the way this country is set up, a lot of the structural issues that lead to poverty can affect anyone."        

DC Diaper Bank executive director Corinne Cannon bundles diapers with a volunteer./Photo courtesy of DC Diaper Bank

From hosting a diaper drive in your local area to becoming an ambassador, there are several ways to become involved. 

“The best part is that you see where the diapers are going,” Bacon said. “Meeting the parents who receive the diapers and seeing how thankful they are is always a great moment.”

Cannon admits the last thing she wanted to do is start a nonprofit having worked in the field for most of her life and knowing how difficult it is to successfully operate one. But, it’s a decision she doesn’t regret making after seeing how much of an impact the DC Diaper Bank has had on the community. She hopes her work will inspire others to start diaper banks in their communities as well.

“If we learned anything from the recession in 2008, it’s that anyone can become poor,” Cannon said. “I’m doing this because I want to live in a world that supports women, children and families because I have children, I am a woman and this could be me. It could be any of us.”

About the Author: Princess Gabbara is a Michigan-based journalist and freelance writer (Ebony, Essence, etc.). You can read more of her work on her blog. She also tweets @PrincessGabbara.

Class Acts Art

THE POWER OF ART

While working for the Institute of Musical Traditions in 1995, Busy Graham noticed a problem. There was a need for top quality arts enrichment programs in schools and few work opportunities for artists during the work week. 

“Arts can play such a vital role in helping kids finding their path to a good, healthy life,” she said.

Graham wanted to connect creative arts and artists to schools and underserved communities. Thus, Class Acts Arts was born.

Since then, CAA has grown into an accredited, award-winning regional outreach arts education nonprofit that brings arts programs to school and underserved communities in the DMV. CAA has reached more than 5 million young people via more than 25,000 artist programs, according to executive director James Modrick.

“(Class Acts Arts) brings the arts to people where they are,” said Modrick. 

Artists visit schools, youth detention centers, and other community-based organizations. The interactive programs include workshops, performances, and artist residencies. CAA’s programs introduce schools and communities to a variety of art forms, such as storytelling, puppet shows and dance, among others.

Visual artist Carien Quiroga teaches CAA’s Project Youth ArtReach program in detention centers, correctional facilities and crisis centers, as well as with children in hospitals. 

She said she has seen her students “realize the power of art.” 

Class Acts Arts Visual Artist. Carien Quiroga, worked with patients, staff and parents at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital to create a 27 SF mural

“Through the arts we can find common ground,” she said, “we can make connections. Because I work in the correctional facility, people are from very different backgrounds… but sitting around a table and making art, the things that separate them don’t matter anymore because they are sharing a common goal.”

 

CREATING A POSITIVE IMPACT

While CAA works in many venues and with different populations, the bulk of programming is focused on youth.

“(We) engage children’s minds in a different way that opens their minds and motivates,” said Modrick. 

CAA’s teaching model doesn’t include grades or teaching to the test. Instead, CAA artists try to bring out students’ talents by encouraging them to excel without making them feel like their work is wrong. 

Class Acts Arts teams up with DC Public Library for Black History Month educational programs

“Often people see making art as something you have to be good at, or you have to have specific talent,” said Quiroga. “…I work with teenagers, and they take risks all the time. They take risks by doing negative things… but making art is intimidating (for them).”

Workshops by CAA artists allow participants to take positive risks in a supportive environment. The non-judgmental spirit of Class Acts Arts can be especially beneficial for students who are struggling academically or behaviorally. 

Performance by Snowday, an a capella group that works with CAA and has performed twice at Cedar Lane School.

Denise Rocco, general music teacher at Cedar Lane School, a self-contained program for students with severe disabilities, sang the praises of CAA.

“We’ve been using Class Acts Arts exclusively for a few years,” she said. “They adapt what they are doing to meet the needs of our students.”

Because some students’ disabilities preclude them from attending live performances in public venues, CAA visits to Cedar Lane afford the children opportunities they might not otherwise have. 

Music in particular, Rocco said, can help break down barriers and have positive physical and mental effects on her students. 

“Most people enjoy music and these kids are no different. There are kids whose muscles are always tight, and when the music is on, they can relax. It can be very calming if they’re agitated or anxious. It’s something they can be successful at. They can shake a tambourine and control the sound they’re making.”

 

ART IS IN EVERYTHING WE DO

Modrick believes art is in everything.

“(You can) find creativity and artistic engagement in everything you do,” he said. 

The nonprofit’s programs teach audiences how art is a part of other subjects including, but not limited to aviation. environmental science and social studies.

Flutist Dr. Andrei Pidkivka and violinist/singer Dr. Solomia Gorskhivska are Ukranian performers in the music ensemble Gerdan (sometimes partnering as Duet Gerdan). Their performances introduce audiences to various aspects of Ukrainian culture.

Gerdan performance as part of "A Ukrainian Montage" on April 25, 2010 produced by the Ukrainian Dancers of Miami at the Broward Center For The Performing Arts, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“We take them on a tour to Ukraine with the different musical styles,” Pidkivka said. “We tell the stories.” 

A folk music demonstration, for example, might include stories of shepherds. They wear cultural costumes, rich in colors and patterns.

“We tell the kids who made the costumes, what regions and villages they came from.” 

After seeing Gerdan perform, teachers and students have said they have a better understanding of Ukrainian culture. 

“Many kids don’t even know where Ukraine is,” Pidkivka said. “We say ‘name a country in Eastern Europe,’ and they say Ireland or Italy.” 

On return visits, however, students have told him that the performance inspired them to take note of news from Eastern Europe, or that they chose to study Ukraine for international projects. 

“(Music),” he said, “is a perfect bridge for people to connect.”

Mural from Sligo Middle School/Photo by James Modrick

Recently, CAA partnered with Passion for Learning, Inc., Big Learning, and Sligo Middle School in S’team Sligo, a leadership development project to engage students through STEAM activities. The students created a curriculum that reflected what they were learning in their class lessons. They wrote a song about Sligo Creek , and worked with the artists to create a mural.

Art is more than just doing something because it’s fun,” said Modrick, “It’s enthusiasm.  It’s a source of joy.  It’s a way of life.”

This is a key lesson of Class Acts Arts’ programs. Some of Carien Quiroga’s PYA students have told her that they would have taken a different path if they had been introduced to art earlier.

She recalls one student in particular, a young man who took part in several workshops.

“He was almost expressing a wish to me. I think he realized how good he was at it and that art can be this powerful way of expression. I guess he felt successful. It was a very moving and touching moment for me to hear that.”

About the Author: Rolena M. King is a writer and marketing, communications, and branding professional based on the East Coast.  She enjoys the arts, and her favorite form of art is dancing.