Monday, December 21, 2009

18 new Youth Have the POWER (internship)!

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18 high school juniors and seniors are currently interning with the UCCP through our innovative POWER Internship program. The POWER Partnership Schools this semester are Parkway North West, Parkway West, Bodine High School, Science Leadership Academy, and Elverson Military Academy. This batch of POWER interns are already outdoing last year’s group with their heated political discussions and leadership drive. In the past five sessions, the youth have explored Temple University’s campus, learned about and reflected on the systems of Power and Oppression in larger society and everyday realities, and organized and facilitated a Social Justice leaders panel with amazing Philadelphia educators and activists including Sandrine Dupiton, founder and editor of Change X magazine, Barbara Bungy, Youth Testing & Prevention Services Program Coordinator in the Pediatric/Adolescent HIV/AIDS Program at St. Christopher's Children's Hospital, Gary Browne, former CityYear volunteer, current LC member and college student and Liz Grinaldi, Executive Director of the Village of Arts and Humanities. After the holiday break, students will begin to choose which social problem they want to tackle, but so far they have really appreciated the space to discuss their thoughts about larger political and social issues that affect their lives. As one student shared gratefully, "I love to voice my opinion, and here, we get to just TALK!"

Stay tuned for their projects next semester. POWER internship is currently recruiting students for its Spring Internship cycle. Contact alisonhuxta [at] yahoo.com to get your students involved.

VOICES Fall 2009 & Project Proposal Showcase

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This semester VOICES welcomed three first-time Leaders Corps instructors, one Temple Political Science intern & twenty four new participants. For eight weeks, the youth and their young adult facilitators engaged in dialogue and workshops on community awareness and critical thinking. Using Philadelphia as their classroom and current events as the content, the groups discussed issues affecting the students, such as the Septa strike, increased school funding and rising racial violence. After researching their issues to develop their arguments, the participants received training from V-Media to create short videos about their issue, as a preview for their larger campaign in Spring 2010. The students showed great passion for their projects, commitment to their group members and increased their public speaking skills.

Youth also had the opportunity to attend two Saturday events this semester: the Temple University Homecoming Football Game at Lincoln Financial Field and Shot!, a "docudrama" about violence in North Philadelphia presented at Tomilson Theater.

We ended of the Fall Semester of VOICES with our annual Project Proposal Showcase on December 12, 2009. Three groups presented PowerPoint and Public Service Announcement videos on the three topics chosen this semester: violence (as played out in the media), high school drop out rate and foster care & adoption. An audience including Temple University professors and students as well as parents, friends and other youth asked the participants questions about the research findings and interviews. Media Literacy and Child and Welfare service providers as gave feedback and encouragement to the students about the work that they have already done.

Please stay tuned in the coming semester to see feature films entitled "Cinderell" and "Violence is Played Out!”

Thanks so much to all who attended and supported our youth!




Laying the groundwork for first year of Youth Action Scholars

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The Youth Action Scholars, our newest addition to the UCCP Progressive Youth Leadership Continuum, have spent the Fall semester carrying out the plans they created this summer. Here are some of the highlights of their progress:

Heath 5 Dimensions (H5D) ran a workshop November 20th at Penrose Playground exploring the five dimensions of health: Mental, Social, Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual. The workshop shop was attended by about 35 people who learned how to nourish themselves in these different aspects of health. Eric Dalloway from Urban Blazers, an organization that hosts outdoor trips for Philadelphia youth, spoke about the inequalities of recreational activities for low income youth in Philadelphia. He also provided easy ways to get to nature hikes right here in Philadelaphia! After his talk H5D facilitated an activity where the workshop were challenged to set up a tent and practice the 5 dimensions of health. It was a fun night of discussion, learning and eating healthy food.

The Polital Youth Team (PYT) is currently putting together a newsletter to urge young people to "go behind the veil" and "look deeper" into the politics that effect their daily lives. Some of their topics include: the profits of guns sales in the US, the social and political implications of Nike's Air Force Ones, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) in teenagers, and food deserts in North Philadelphia. If you have questions about one or all of these issues, be sure to check out their first newsletter in Spring 2010!

Race, Culture, and Mass Media is almost finished putting together their first workshop on the importance of black youth understanding African AND African American History. The workshop will explore how historical occurrences have shaped the current mindsets and culture of black youth and demonstrate the significance of this missing history from the Philadelphia Public School curriculum. Please come out to this workshop January 29th at 4:30 at Penrose Playground! RCMM has also been hosting shows on blogtalkradio! Check out their first broadcast entitled "Whats Up with the African American History Curriculum?" at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/maatforbaba/2009/12/15/whats-up-with-african-american-history-curriculum

Philadelphia Youth Commission

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On Novemeber 21st and December 5th, 2009 fifteen representatives from the Philadelphia Youth Commission met at Temple University to participate in a strategic planning workshop for the organization. The UCCP facilitated a training on working as a team, and led a discussion on present and future challenges and opportunities for the Commission. We are thrilled to support and collaborate with this organization and its members, and share its commitment to including youth voice into the city government.

More Progress and Partnerships at Penrose Playground!

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For over nineteen months the UCCP has been working in the community surrounding Temple’s campus. Most of the work has been centered on Penrose Playground, in an effort to bring more activities and resources to the community. Work in the community began this year on MLK Day of Service by coordinating over 120 volunteers to clean and paint the Rec center and organize the library and supplies at the Playground. The UCCP also coordinated and hosted an event to celebrate the inauguration of president Obama and in April, the UCCP helped coordinate 100 Hours of Power in partnership with City Year and Teens for Good. During the summer we helped community leaders plan the 24th Camac/Diamond annual reunion. With UCCP’s support, organizations like Starfinder, Drexel School of Medicine and the Department of Public Dental Health at Temple University donated their time and came to provide free HIV testing, dental health related information and soccer activities for children in the community.

This Fall, the UCCP ran activities for children on the after school program including Karate, Dance and Craft making. For the holidays, two of our interns serving as Penrose Ambassadors organized a very successful Toy Drive and donated all the toys to the Playground to celebrate the holidays. Currently the UCCP is partnering with YouthBuild Charter School to do some needed renovations at the Playground. These renovations would take place before and during MLK Day 2010. Stay tuned for more developments!

Using Media to Address Youth & Violence in Philadelphia

Encouraged by the positive feedback to and the dialogue-provoking power of Point Blank, a documentary about two recent gun shot victims created by our V-MEDIA members Aaron Kennedy and Earla Joseph, the UCCP has been using the film to start conversations with key stakeholders and the larger community around the culture of violence and its influence on Philadelphia youth.

Collaborating with Temple faculty, grad students, undergraduate interns and community leaders in the field, the UCCP hosted a screening of Point Blank and What's Your Story?, a PSA created by UCCP's POWER interns for the Temple community on October 29th, 2009. Dr. Sonja Peterson-Lewis moderated a panel of responders including Scott Charles, Trauma Outreach Coordinator at Temple Hospital and director of the Cradle-to-Grave program, Lieutenant Josey, a Philadelphia police officer actively involved in youth violence prevention, and Earl Joseph, a Temple Student, UCCP Leaders Corps member and a young Black male living in Philadelphia. The response from Temple students, community members and other faculty was overwhelming and the UCCP is planning to continue the conversation about this issue and its institutional and cultural causes and possible solutions with the Temple community.

In the meantime, we have been screening the film for a variety of selected groups , including a 7th and a 9th grade classes from Eastern University Academy Charter School, and a group of young men from Southwest and West Philadelphia. For requests to screen the film in your community, program or school, please contact Natalia Smirnov at nsmirnov (at) temple.edu.

We are very grateful to the Violence Discussion Group for contributing ideas, energy and creativity to this project : Dr. Jill Chonoody, Dr. Sonja Peterson-Lewis, Patricia Harner, Dr. Kay Harris, Nuala Cabral, Kathy Seizer, Courtney McNultey, Matt Gorman, Farhiya Tifow, Earla Joseph and Aaron Kennedy and other occasional and valued guests of the group.

Service Learning at YouthBuild

This year the UCCP had the great pleasure to work with ten AmeriCorps members working at YouthBuild Charter School to help them plan Service Learning classes. The UCCP provided training on choosing an issue, facilitating ice-breakers and discussions and supporting youth project-based learning. We were very pleased with the results of this work and we are looking forward to see what service projects come out of these classes.

UCCP works with the Philadelphia School District to Strengthen Student Government

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This Fall the UCCP had the wonderful opportunity to work with the Philadelphia School District by providing a series of trainings for citywide student government representatives and the adult sponsors who help support student governments in their respective high schools. On September 3, one week before the beginning of the new school year, 48 passionate and committed high school students from across the city attended an all day training at Temple University on various aspects of leadership. Addressing topics such as the qualities, roles, and responsibilities of a leader, and issue identification, mobilization of support and development and execution of action oriented campaigns, these students demonstrated once again how high young people will reach when given the appropriate supports and opportunities. As a special incentive, Dr. Ackerman addressed the students and encouraged them to become advocates for educational improvement, promising $50,000 for them to launch an anti-truancy campaign. They have since developed the campaign – watch for it on local media!

The UCCP also had the opportunity to work with close to 50 adult sponsors from public schools across Philadelphia. During three training workshops in October, we engaged in ice breakers, small group activities, role playing and large group discussions, to collectively explore topics of democracy in schools, democracy in student governments, types and degrees of participation, attributes of youth leaders, importance of youth leadership, role of Adult Sponsors, supports needed, challenges, and effective youth adult partnerships. UCCP staff took the knowledge generated from these highly spirited activities and created a Living Document of Best Practices in Student Leadership for the School District.