This summer, UCCP hosted another successful summer academy, providing an opportunity for 25 Philadelphia youth and 9 Leader Corps members to spend 6 weeks working to develop leadership and media production skills and educate others about important issues in their community.
Read the stories about specific projects below and check out some more pictures of this summer on our Flickr account!
This summer UCCP’s home-grown news show POPPYN (Presenting Our Perspective on Philly Youth News) welcomed a new cohort of young members to its team, representing many Philadelphia neighborhoods and schools: Kensington/ Kensington Culinary Academy, Olney/ Science Leadership Academy, Center City/ Mastery Charter School, South Philly/ Horace Furness High School, North Philly/ Tacony Academy, Brewerytown/ Constitution High. Students were trained by UCCP’s veteran V-Media producers Saeed Briscoe and Taesha White on media production and literacy, with support of Temple University intern Lynsey Graeff.
The new crew learned the mission of POPPYN and what it takes to produce an episode by jumping right into the process, assuming the jobs of researchers, anchors, reporters, camera people and editors in the production of POPPYN #5! Episode 5 focused on food in Philadelphia, highlighting the efforts of youth-led urban nutrition and gardening programs like Urban Nutrition Initiative and Teens 4 Good. Also featured were interviews and facts about teens’ favorite foods, a deconstruction of ethnic food stereotypes and a report from a National youth-run community-agriculture conference called Rooted in Community. You can see all these stories as well as more creative interpretations of the theme on POPPYN’s website: http://whatspoppyn.blogspot.com
A big thank you to Mosi Blaylock, a UCCP Leaders Corps member who accompanied and supported the youth at M3 through the entire camp.
The 2011-2012 Youth Action Scholars are off to a great start! This past July, 20 high school students from a variety of schools and neighborhoods came together to take part in the six-week summer session kick-off of the program year. Led by Leader Corps members Kenny Williams-Medley and Earla Joseph, this year's YAS participants are looking at two important issues that affect their communities. Kenny's group is investigating Diversity and Immigration in Philadelphia, specficially looking at how immigration is affecting and changing the face of our city, as well as the unique set of issues and challenges immigrants (especially immigrant youth) and their communities face once they arrive here in Philadelphia. Earla's group is taking a closer look at the Juvenile Justice System, and the racial and socioeconomic inequalities which result in the incarceration of a disproportionate amount of poor and minority youth. The students worked hard to put together two interactive and engaging workshops on their respective topics, which they were able to practice for family and friends at the final event. This fall, their hard work will continue with the addition of a media component to each workshop, field trips to community organizations, presenting their workshops to peer and adult groups, and more. We are looking forward to a productive and inspriring year!
Every summer we provide the opportunity for a select group of past participants and Temple University students to participate in our Leadership Development Institute (LDI) to gain a working knowledge of our organization, the process of youth leadership development and project facilitation. Successful graduates of the LDI are eligible to become part of UCCP’s Leaders Corps, a dedicated group of talented young adults who facilitate all of our programs.
LDI participants are trained on hard skills of facilitation, project planning, curriculum development, issue research, and UCCP’s philosophy of youth-led project-based learning. As part of their training the LDI participants, like the youth they’ll be working with, have to collectively identify an issue, create a media project, prepare a presentation, and facilitate an activity. Through the experiential learning process, the LC-in-training gain a better understanding of the challenges they’ll face in supporting a youth-driven community engagement project.
Five outstanding young people completed the LDI this summer, producing a powerful project on the representation of women in the media. We are excited to welcome them to the Leaders Corps: Lynsey Graeff and Jessica Arce who will be working with POPPYN, Taneka Price and Adeoyin Otolorin ‘Dee’ who will be working with VOICES and Norman Scott who will be working with the POWER Internship.
Youth Action Scholars Taneka Price and Jabari Jackson, with the leadership of Kenny Williams-Medley and Alie Huxta presented a powerful interactive workshop to an audience of more than 30 youth and adults at the Free Minds Free People conference in Providence, RI. Workshop attendees got a "Reality Check" on the relationships between media ownership and representation and school funding and leadership. Content for the workshop has been developed by Youth Action Scholar participants in the "Education" and "Race, Culture & Mass Media" groups over the course of 2010-2011 program year. Thank you FMFP for the amazing opportunity to share and network with likeminded social justice educators!
Over the past 8 years the UCCP has partnered with the Experiment in International Living to provide a unique opportunity for students to travel & study abroad. We have supported 27 students over the years. They can choose from 52 programs in 29 different countries around the world! The program couples rural home-stay experiences with tailored intensive arts, language, or community service exposure. This summer:
Johntel Ogden (High School Junior/ Youth Action Scholar) will spend 4 weeks between Guadix, Preiego de Cordoba with his host family near the Mediterranean. The second half of his trip will be spent in Adelucia, Spain studying at a Spanish language school testing out his new vocabulary navigating the plaza and markets while participating in an annual celebrations including a festival and parade.
Angela Hagins (High School Sophomore/ VOICES after school program Participant) will be on a Costa Rican ecological adventure! Her 5 week trips starts with studying nature reserves and bio-parks in San Jose. She wraps up her trip with a 12 day homestay in Pejivalle/Sante Maria surrounded by sugar cane fields and green mountains (untouched by industrialization)
The students were assisted by a wonderful Political Sceince intern Atusa Shirasb!
This semester VOICES welcomed 3 first-time Leaders Corps instructors (Donyel Gaymon, Jaimie White & Akua Whitaker) along with two senior LC members to facilitate 3 projects with 31 VOICES participants. After excellent presentations at the Project Proposal showcase this past December the students used that feedback to fuel their project ideas and take their campaigns to the next level.
One group tackled Cyber Bullying by presenting a workshop to their high school peers. Using their personal experiences of being bullied, witnessing a bullying incident or even being the bully themselves, the participants designed the activities and their message to offer holistic solutions for all who are affected.
A group of high school seniors from South Philly, Strawberry Mansion and Parkway Northwest high schools found the common thread of their senior projects in the importance of building Self-Esteem and Confidence. They presented a workshop and a PSA to a room with middle school students at Penrose Recreation Center and led a dialog around the importance of "believing in yourself." All who attended left inspired!
Another group decided to tackle the lack of resources offered to youth when they are in situations of Dating Violence. They produced a film to show the warning signs and to offer help to both males and females who are being abused verbally, physically and mentally by a partner.
This VOICES semester was filled with hard work but also lots of fun rewards, including an ice skating event at Penn's Landing, Spring Break Activities that included our annual ice cream social & game night, and a Saturday afternoon of Laser Tag, bowling, pool, games and pizza in Feasterville, Pa.
Thank you to our Political Science Interns from PS3132 (Hillary Garvanne, Josh Grajewski, Brittany Wilkerson and Andrew Bollinger) as well as media prodution support from Saeed Briscoe, Nastassia Harewood, and Jessica Arce.
Since January 2011, UCCP has been working with Starfinder Foundation, a youth empowerment soccer program, to train a number of their high school students for their summer jobs as soccer coaches. Using UCCP's signature Project Based Collaboration format, Johannah Bennett and Kenny Williams-Medley have conducted workshops on diversity, public speaking, team work, leadership, critical thinking while developing a project on the student-chosen issue of Teen Pregnancy. In the course of 7 weeks, students created a variety of mini-skits in order to spark dialogues between teens and parents. The skits focused on a variety of scenarios that teens may find themselves in (being home alone with a boyfriend, not using protection and getting pregnant, going to a party where there is alcohol). The participants presented their skits to the UCCP's Youth Action Scholars. Currently, UCCP and Starfinder are continuing their partnership, develop ing a curriculum for their youth summer camp and training their youth leaders on facilitation and lesson planning.
The Fall 2010 POWER Interns finished their semester with a success! The Interns, coming form Parkway Northwest, Science Leadership Academy and Freire Charter School, created a PSA titled “We Are All Human”, focusing on bringing awareness and fostering a dialogue amongst viewers around stereotypes and the negative impact they have on individuals and groups.
During the first weeks of POWER Internship, students participated in a variety of activities that challenged them to think deeper about how we are all affected by stereotypes and the impact it has on us personally. One of the most significant activities they participated in was “Identity Politics”, where Interns had to write 5 things about themselves that others had perceived of them. Quietly, Interns walked around and read the stereotypes that others and maybe even themselves had placed on one another. This is what solidified them as a team it enabled them to open up and trust one another.
The POWER Interns completed their workshop at Science Leadership Academy for 15 other students; they screened their PSA, facilitated activities, and engaged the audience in a discussion around this very sensitive topic.
This spring has been a busy time for the Youth Action Scholars! This April they did their workshop "Reality Check: Beyond the Classroom" for participants at Starfinder Foundation, an organization that empowers youth through soccer. The high school seniors YAS presented to said that they "got to learn things they would never learn in school," which is what YAS is all about. Here is how the Scholars explain it:
What is "Reality Check"?
As students, we spend a lot time sitting in class and consuming media. Did you ever start to question these everyday experiences? Our workshop will look at these everyday surroundings, especially our Education and Media, and question the ideas formed by what we learn in school and see on TV and in movies. We will also break down the issues caused by media’s stereotypes of black people and education inequality to see how they can be addressed through action on different levels, whether it is between friends, in the government, or even your own mind. So get ready go BEYOND THE CLASSROOM for a REALITY CHECK.
Youth Action Scholars hosted a Teen Cafe at the Honickman Center at 23rd and Diamond St.on May 6th and presented "Reality Check" to a group of 30 youth. Participants included youth from Norris Square Neighborhood Project, UCCP and surrounding area. The youth had a similar response to "Reality Check" as Starfinder participants. One student from NSNP wrote on our evaluation that this workshop is going to "make me more critical of the TV shows I watch."
But YAS's largest opportunity is still to come! This July YAS was chosen to present at the Free Minds Free People Conference from July 8th to the 10th. 3 youth action scholars, Taneka Price, Alisha Simpkins, and Jabari Jackson will take Reality Check national! The mission of the Free Minds Free People Conference is:
Free Minds, Free People is a national conference that brings together teachers, high school and college students, researchers, parents and community-based activists/educators from across the country to build a movement to develop and promote education as a tool for liberation. We seek to develop ways of teaching and learning both in and out of school that help us to build a more just society. The conference is a space in which these groups can learn from and teach each other, sharing knowledge, experience and strategies. Read more about the conference here: http://www.freemindsfreepeople.org/about
Barbara Ferman, the UCCP’s Executive Director, was invited by the Australian Universities Community Engagement Alliance to be a visiting international scholar this past spring. On what turned out to be a whirlwind tour of the country, she conducted over 15 workshops at 9 universities on topics related to how universities can more effectively work with their surrounding communities. The topics included Community Based Research; Engaged Teaching; Experiential Learning; Infrastructure and Capacity Building to support this work; and Youth Leadership Development, among others. True to fashion, the Australians were highly welcoming and exceptionally gracious. And, it was most inspiring to share cross cultural experiences on and hopes for university community engagement.
In the News: "From Philadelphia to Whyalla - models of community engagement."
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