Non-Profit
Citizen Schools; exposing middle school kids to professional opportunities
Last night I had the honor of serving as a judge at the annual Citizen Schools Design & Development WOW! presentations. Citizen Schools is a local non profit that works with middle school kids. The Design and Development Apprenticeship is an urban planning ideas competition – and we at D2E love ideas! This event engages more than 100 youth from middle schools throughout Boston. For 10 weeks each fall, the students collaborate with volunteer architecture and development professionals and Citizen Schools staff to re-envision Boston’s built environment and public open spaces, developing plans and models for projects in different city neighborhoods.
This student from the McCormack school impressed us with his innovative ideas, his spiffy suit and his articulate presentation. Well done!
The Edison Middle School tackled the problems with City Hall!
It was inspiring to hear these students ideas. And it was great to also meet some of the graduates from previous years that are now in college. This really is what it’s all about. Kids have to be exposed to options in order to understand that there are opportunities.
According to John Werner, the enthusiastic leader of Citizen Schools, “This program works. Our combination of rigorous academic support and engaging apprenticeships is producing a generation of eager and invested learners. Citizen teachers are sharing their expertise and kids are listening. Our students are outperforming a comparison group of public middle school students on 6 of 7 key indicators, including MCAS scores, attendance, suspension rates and on time promotion to 10th grade, a critical indicator of HS graduation rates. As well, graduate of our 8th grade academy program are graduating from HS and attending college at nearly twice the rates of their BPS peers.”
I was really tired on this Monday and at 4pm I was dreading the commitment I made to be a judge. Those feelings faded as soon as I arrived and saw all the great work being done. I was energized and excited to be a part of this great effort. And a big “Thank you” goes out to all of the local businesses that stepped up to the plate and brought the students into their offices. This was a big time commitment and a great investment in the future of Boston. We at D2E applaud you!
Participating Apprenticeships:
Payette Associates: McCormack Middle School
Cubellis: Edwards Middle School
Goody Clancy: Irving Middle School
Harvard Graduate School of Design: 8th Grade Academy
ICON Architecture, Inc: Rogers Middle school
Paul Lukez Architecture: Mario Umana Middle School Academy
Shepley Bulfinch: Gavin Middle School
Jones Lang LaSalle: Edison Middle School
Altitude, Inc.: McCormack Middle School
Below are a bunch of photos to enjoy.
Students are making plans for a bike and pedestrian path to help improve and reinvigorate the Columbia Point neighborhood.
Jones Lang LaSalle even went to the extent of teaching the kids about budgeting. I could have used a few of these lessons!
To the tune of Rocky, the students marched up to the podium to collect their awards.
Ernest Pough, a graduate of Citizen Schools and current Freshman at Union College was one of my fellow judges. He passed out our awards to the teams.
Policy and Art are alive in Boston
While reading the Globe this morning, in my effort to be more informed of our policy makers, I was again heartened to read not only about progress in our local government and non profit sector, but also I read about some great art. So this Monday morning I am feeling all warm and fuzzy about living in a city and state that is taking action and growing culturally. In this morning’s Globe I found two articles I’d like to pass on. One about Green Collar Jobs and one about a local heavy metal artist, Skunk who makes robotic sculptures out of old bicycle parts.
In regards to the green collar jobs, our job panel from this past year’s show was a direct response to Van Jones’ call for action. We at down:2:earth are trying to use our show as a forum for discussion and a resource center. So we brought together some young people working in the green sector with Galen Nelson from the City of Boston to talk about opportunities and to inspire people. We were surprised to see how many people over 20 years old attended the workshop, and that taught us that we should expand our job related event this year. D2E can’t be the answer for every sustainable issue, but we offer a great opportunity for people to talk and learn. So please let us know if there is an issue that you want to be covered. We are working on our programming for the April 2009 show, and we want to hear your thoughts.
On Social Justice from today’s article:
“We’re going to need to see a lot more of this stuff on a much larger scale than we have before,” says Penn Loh, executive director of Roxbury’s Alternatives for Community & Environment, an organization focused on eradicating environmental racism that is also a member of Community Labor United. “This could be as big as the New Deal and the restructuring of the economy after the stock market crash and the Great Depression. We’re at a turning point in human history.”
On Skunk:
We love Skunk.
Saving trees, one fax at a time
Since we in the D2E office are planning an environmental expo, we are becoming very conscious of the impact of even the tiniest actions of our business. For instance, every day we get at least one advertisement faxed to us. Ironically, we often receive ads for ink cartridges. Do the ink cartridge companies really think we’re going to call them after their junk faxes use up all our ink?
We’ve started collecting the faxes and other pieces of one-sided paper in a cardboard box for reuse. The ads really add up! We are also calling the advertisers to remove our fax number from their list, which takes a little extra time, but will save a lot of paper.
As for the paper we can’t reuse, the D2E office signed up for Earthworm Recycling about 6 months ago. Earthworm is a nonprofit based in Somerville that recycles mixed office paper for businesses. We recently received a report on our progress; we have already recycled 481 pounds of paper, which is roughly equivalent to 4 trees.
Interesting factoid from Earthworm’s website:
Did You Know . . . Enough office waste paper is thrown away each year to build a 12- foot wall between Los Angeles and New York City?
FishPhone = Phat.
Ever wonder what type of seafood is the safest for your health and the environment? If you’re like me, you usually only remember to ponder this before ordering dinner in a restaurant, or before buying seafood in the supermarket, when the information isn’t readily available.
Enter FishPhone, “the nation’s first sustainable seafood text messaging service,” brought to you by the nonprofit Blue Ocean Institute.
To vet your seafood choice, text 30644 with the message FISH and the name of the fish you’re considering. They send a text back with their assessment of the species health and better alternatives to fish with significant environmental concerns.
Fish are assigned a color from the best option (GREEN) to the worst option (RED) based on environmental concerns (like habitat damage from fishing/farming the species or overfishing) and human health concerns (like high levels of mercury and PCBs).
To try out the service I texted “FISH Red Snapper” that I ordered last time I was in a restaurant, and within 30 seconds got the following unfortunate text back: “Fr: Fish Phone Snapper (RED) significant environmental concerns; fisheries management is poor and populations are declining.” Oops.
Blue Ocean’s Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood is also available as a website, a webpage for your cell phone or PDA, and for technophobes, as a wallet-sized pamphlet you can print out.
I added FishPhone to my cell phone’s contact list so I won’t make the wrong choice again!
LEAP for girl power!
In my networking travels, while attending events that are focused on issues that I believe in, I found LEAP – Lifetime Empowerment and Awareness Program. I met Deborah Weaver, the founder, at an event organized by the Boston Business Journal and sponsored by State Street. The event was focused on how businesses can help to end teen violence in Boston. Since we at D2E strongly believe that business is not a four letter word and we can act as agents of change, we are actively pursuing ways to strengthen our corporate citizenship. Basically, we are working to pay our own rent and make a difference while doing so.
Back to LEAP. This is a great program and I encourage everyone to check out the website. On the surface, LEAP trains girls to physically defend themselves. The wonderful side effect of this training is self empowerment. LEAP gives girls options and helps them make decisions in spite of fear. The self-reflective skills that are gained through the LEAP program help strengthen girls’ ability to say “no” in difficult situations, to create safe and constructive boundaries, and to identify and trust their own feelings.
How cool is that? It took me years of falling down to learn to trust my gut. If you know a girl between the ages of 8 and 18, I suggest you check out LEAP. It is not just for inner city girls – we country girls need to learn how to defend ourselves as well.
WorldChanging = LifeChanging
In my sparse spare time, I’ve been making my way through WorldChanging: A Users Guide to the 21st Century. This life-changing book is a compendium of state-of-the-art sustainability solutions, and should be required reading of anyone who will live a substantial portion of their lives during the 21st century.
WorldChanging thinks way outside the green box, bringing together ideas on how to turn technology, social networking, crafting, and everybody’s everyday lives into agents of positive change for the environment, human rights, and social justice. They also have a really forward-thinking blog on related topics.
The book was designed to be attractive, but with minimal environmental impact. As disclosed in a full environmental benefits statement, it was printed on 100% recycled New Leaf paper saving 3,866 fully grown trees, and the production was powered by wind power, resulting in a savings of over 360,000 pounds of greenhouse gases.
Check it out at your library, pick up a used copy at your local independent book seller, buy it online at Powell’s, and share it with your friends and neighbors.
WOW! What an event!
On December 12 (two weeks ago today) I had the honor and privilege to participate in the Citizen Schools WOW! event. Citizen Schools is a leading national education initiative that uniquely mobilizes thousands of adult volunteers to help improve student achievement by teaching sk
ill-building apprenticeships after-school. The event that I attended was focused on design and I was honored to be a judge.
Teams of middle school students were paired up with local architecture firms (and one development firm) to work on a public space. They could choose between the Jackson Square Station in Jamaica Plain/Roxbury, or Sullivan Square Station in Charlestown/Somerville. Each team was asked to submit concepts for a new design of the station headhouse (entry to station), a monument and the public space around it.
The value that I saw in this project was huge. First of all, kids are interacting with adult professionals. This makes a career in design more attainable. Secondly, they are learning that the design of our public spaces has an affect on how we interact as humans. They learned to observe the current spaces and be critical of them. What was working with the space? What was not working? How can we improve it? I did not start to ask these questions until I was a working adult, so to expose this thinking to kids puts our society at an advantage. In our efforts to become a more sustainable society, design plays a vital role.
Before I go off on a tangent about how important design is for our communities I will close by saying that Citizen Schools is a great organization to support – through donations or volunteering. If you are interested in the future of our communities you can help by getting involved with the kids. And I will recommend that everyone read “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacobs. This book is what woke me up and it made me look at my surroundings in a much different way. Here is a NY Times review of the book. Ask your local book shop if they have it – and if they do not, ask them to order it.
Protect Our Winters
I recently learned about Protect Our Winters. This is a great organization for many reasons – but what I like most about it is that it speaks to the young skiers and riders. We can often get caught up in the “not my issue” mentality. So I like seeing organizations that target specific markets – this way the message is more likely to reach everyone.
Check out their website to see their projects and what they are all about. I love a white Christmas, and I hope my great great grandchildren will too.
Recent Posts
D2Eets on Twitter
- Sorry for last tweet! Wrong account! For haiti updates follow @andreadatkinson
- On the plane to port au prince. From what it looks like more than half full of volunteers #haiti
- Thank you all for a FABULOUS event! Keep following us for more info on #green living in #Boston and beyond and keep going green!
- RT @realfoodmedia: New post: down:2:earth, Boston’s Sustainable Living Expo http://bit.ly/cHjm6V
