Youth Action Scholars: Inequality in Education

Lypheng Kim, sophomore at Mastery Charter (Thomas) leading a
"3 Corners" activity at the final Youth Action Scholars event.

This spring, our Youth Action Scholars worked hard to put together an educational and interactive workshop on inequality in our education system, an issue that feels especially timely given the current state of public education here in Philadelphia.  The project was inspired by a field trip the Scholars took on the 23 bus, which stretches the length of the city, starting on Oregon Ave in South Philadelphia and ending at the top of Germantown Ave in Chestnut Hill.  This look at the vast differences (and inequities) that exist in communities that are so close geographically, prompted them to examine the differences between two high schools that sit along the 23 route. Their workshop focused on the differences in demographics and funding at Germantown High School and Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School.  They facilitated their workshop for an audience of almost 50 people at their final event on Temple's campus on May 23.  The five Youth Action Scholars who completed the year were articulate, thoughtful, talented, and committed to raising awareness about how educational inequality affects young people in Philadelphia.  We are very proud of them!

Third year of YAS to a strong start!

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!

Youth Action Scholars take "Reality Check" on the Road

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

Summer Academy 2010

The UCCP concluded its 2010 Summer Academy with a genuine triumph. On August 10th we hosted what will hopefully become an annual tradition – the Summer Summit – a day long event engaging youth and allies in interactive workshops, film screenings and community presentations.

The 2010 Summer Summit was an example of UCCP’s Youth Leadership in action. It was planned and facilitated by this year’s Leadership Development Institute participants – 18 and 19 year old youth training to become part of our Leaders Corps. The LDI participants created flyers, signs and program agendas, MC-ed the event, directed the audience to appropriate destinations, ordered and served food and made sure everything ran smoothly. They did a fantastic job and gained an experience in organizing and coordinating events that will be useful in their work at the UCCP and in colleges they heading to in the Fall. In addition to their preparation for the final event, the LDI participants learned many aspects of youth leadership development, lesson planning and facilitation and created and facilitated activities for younger youth from UCCP's programs and a new partner this summer - Cradles for Crayons.

Our second year cohort of Youth Action Scholars had the opportunity to test their workshops on Education and Race, Culture and Mass Media that they have been designing and practicing over the summer. The Scholars created 4 workshops on: how oppression affects education, contemporary representations of blackface in the media, where school funding comes from and how it works and analyzing symbols in popular and ancient cultures. They did a great job facilitating and engaging their workshop audience in interactively learning critical issues and applying them to their own lives. If you or your organization is interested in hosting a YAS workshop, please contact Phil Scott at apscott@temple.edu.

The Summit also features a gallery exhibit and documentary screening by a group of 10 students who participated in a PhotoVoice process of documenting positive and negative aspects of their Philadelphia communities through digital photography. Graciously hosted at Tyler School of Art’s beautiful Student Lounge, the exhibit, entitled “The Ghetto is Not Our Final Destination” showed Philadelphia from the eyes of these youth. Their documentary elaborated on issues of safety and violence in Philadelphia. The PhotoVoice project is especially grateful to our partners Maria Kefalas, Jill Chonody, Jill Welsh and Shayna McConville for supporting the group through contributions of finances, facilitation and facilities!

Finally, this summer’s three introductory VOICES groups presented their films on Violence, Teen Parenting and STDs. The groups spent 6 weeks learning essential skills including teamwork and public speaking while identifying a collective issue, researching about it and working together to create a film to address it. The groups created informative and engaging videos and power point presentations that they presented to an audience of youth and adults and received feedback for their work.

We as the UCCP staff and Leaders Corps feel incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to spend 6 weeks with these amazing and inspiring young people.

H5D at Chester Youth Empowerment Summit

On Saturday, May 8th, 2010 the Youth Action Scholars presented a workshop at the Chester Youth Collaborative Youth Council’s “Flip the Script, Stop the Violence” 2010 Chester Youth Empowerment Summit at Widener University. Workshop areas addressed: healthy relationships, life skills, violence prevention, bullying, peer pressure, conflict resolution, substance abuse, self-esteem, hip hop culture and more. Their workshop entitled “Self-Destruction” informed and empowered personal decision making for health and well-being. There was an awesome turnout, and the Youth Council did a great job! We look forward to working with them again in the future.

Building the Community Classroom - the Final Youth Action Scholar event of the Year

The first year of the Youth Action Scholars concluded with a very successful final Teen Cafe on May 14th at Penrose Playground. The theme of the workshop was "Building the Community Classroom: Learning to Learn Outside of School.” All three YAS groups (Health 5 Dimensions, Race Culture and Mass Media, and Political Youth Team) did activities that exemplified their groups main messages and goals:

Race Culture and Mass Media did an activity that had the audience dialog about how much TV they watch and how it influences their perceptions. They then linked how society views black men and women in society.

The Political Youth Team did an activity in which the audience wore a blindfold that represented “how blind we are to the politics around us.” PYT then asked questions about everyday items such as water bottles, corner store snacks, and Walmart bags and challenged the participants to expand their minds and "go beyond the veil" to see how politics effects them.

Health 5 Dimensions group’s activity had the crowd rate their priorities of the 5 dimensions of health (spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, and social) and how they can better balance these dimensions.

After a rotation of these 3 activities the audience had to do an activity to see how Race, Health, and Politics all connect in our daily lives.

Thank you to YOUTHadelphia, PCVPC, parents, family, UCCP reps, and community members for coming out to this event. As one audience member reflected, "youth can teach adults a lot about how to run this city!" and this year, the UCCP’s Youth Action Scholars did indeed build a community classroom at the Penrose Playground!

Laying the groundwork for first year of Youth Action Scholars

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

Introducing the Youth Action Scholars!

This summer marked the launch of a new level in the UCCP’s youth leadership continuum. Emphasizing the importance of both education and action, UCCP's new group called Youth Action Scholars provides an opportunity for successful VOICES after school and POWER Internship graduates to step up their leadership and commitment by working on a long term campaign to transform the world around them. This summer, 16 students ages 15-18 were selected into the program after going through a rigorous application and interview process in June. After being accepted as a potential Action Scholar, each young person had a chance to select the issue they wanted to focus on for their campaign. Forming 3 groups with 5-6 action scholars each, the youth and their Leaders Corps facilitators took on an ambitious summer educating themselves on the problems and root causes of their issues and setting a strategy for change. In the process, they met with relevant community organizations and nonprofits, developed organizing skills and created a long term action plan to reach the goals for their social change campaigns. In the upcoming year, the Scholars will meet once a week to continue working on their campaigns and organizing events around their issues.

The curriculum and structure for YAS was developed collectively by Alie Huxta, UCCP’s AmeriCorps VISTA and POWER Internship coordinator with UCCP’s Leaders Corps facilitators Dave Cruz, Ma’at ForBaba and Aaron Phil Scott.

MEET THE TEAMS:

Policial Youth Team (PYT) is committed to informing and educating young people in the community on the political issues that directly affect their lives, while also motivating them to critically analyze those issues. They plan to provide workshops and resources to those who want to make a change in their community. As a PYT would say, "We will go beyond the Veil of our everyday lives to show that Politics Is In Everything.”

Race, Culture and Mass Media (RCMM) - The youth in RCMM spent the summer researching and learning about the image of African Americans in media, and how African American history has been skewed by mass media and public schools. Their goal is to educate Philly youth on the history of their race and culture by creating a class curriculum relevant to the students’ culture and experience. To bring these goals into action they will host workshops about the importance of African American history, and also urge the Philadelphia School District to adopt a more multicultural curriculum based on the race and culture of its students.

Health 5 Dimensions (H5D)- After a year of successful Teen Health Cafes with The Net, a group of 6 youth expanded on this idea and morphed into a new group called H5D. This group will be educating others on a holistic approach to health that includes five dimensions: emotional, spiritual, social, physical, and intellectual. This year they aim to put on eight workshops advocating for this approach, and their long term goal is to start a healthy food stand in a low-income neighborhood in Philadelphia, because for H5D, “Every Community is a Healthy Community.”