Nice mention in the New Haven Independent

Check it out here.

Quick Thanks

A big shout of thanks to the Soul-O-ettes, Solar Youth, the Color of Words, and the Girl Scouts for helping us out yesterday. Everyone's participation was inspiring.

As always, I'll share feedback once we've compiled it.

Now We're Talking Positive...

We're pleased to present our newest community philanthropy forum. It's still about youth, but rather than focus on their problems, or more politely their challenges, we're now going to celebrate their successes. We're lining up a bunch of youth groups to show off their youth who are making a difference. Here's the official invitation language and info:

Celebrate What You’ve Done

Join the Youth You’ve Helped

Talk to Them, and Watch Them Show Their Stuff

How Do We Help Them Continue to Achieve?

How Do We Help More Youth Do the Same?

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

5:30 p.m.

ACES Educational Center for the Arts
55 Audubon Street, 2^nd floor, New Haven, CT

Refreshments and sandwiches will be served.

RSVP by Friday, August 10, 2007
Call 777.2386 x7201 or click here.
Questions? Call Angel Fernández-Chavero, 777.7072
Or by email, afernandez@cfgnh.org

The thirteenth in a series of donor-community conversations.

As always, let us know what you think. I'm going to post soon the list of youth agencies or programs who have agreed to let their youth strut their stuff. Feel free to comment in the meantime.

Feedback is here!

I'm pleased to share the feedback we collected from our last forum. For many, it was a powerful experience. Take a look and see for yourself!

How will you live the change you are seeking?

• I believe I can continue to use my voice to help out myself and others.
• I will attend Board of Education meetings.
• I can become a mentor to a young person. Pour some wisdom and love into another person’s life.
• I can get my community involved.
• Teach in New Haven Public School system.
• Mentoring / Big Sister program / Literacy Volunteer
• Tutoring and organizing: Jewish Coalition for Literacy. Organizing spring break in New Haven to introduce Yale students to the city.
• I would like to volunteer to work with teens.
• Get more resources into my school
• Mentor
• Just continuing with what I do.
• Teach youth history and culture / diversity; importance of belonging to something that makes sense
• To improve the community I would love to help open the Q House and have program that take youth on trips and different activities.
• Meet with young people on their turf and earn their trust.
• I hope to create diversified dance bands that have people coming together through dance and music.
• I can be a liaison for Fair Have Community Health Center / Wilbur Cross High School
• I could become more involved with educating youth about African-American history to develop a pride in their heritage and self.
• I can continue to advocate for youth, and to continue to make strides towards engaging youth around making positive moves in life.
• I can help young adults develop critical thinking skills through my work in youth development in the non-profit world.
• To try to educate the younger children to have respect for themselves and for the older generation. To take pride in themselves and their friends.
• I could be available as a tutor. This would allow me to be with young people and have them communicate with me and me with them.
• Partnership, collaboration, and more partnership
• I think that good leadership and someone that you can look up to as well as getting more involved in things you like to keep you off the street will help.
• Most important thing to reduce violence: get teens motivated, involved, and make them feel cared about.
  
  

What did you like about this conversation?

• I liked the participation and the consideration of others during the conversation.
• I liked the information given in the film
• It shows the other side of the fence
• I appreciated the ability to converse with others on a community level.
• Excellent exchange with respect for differing views
• I enjoyed hearing people who grew up in New Haven talk about their experience / opinions at the violence.
• As I watched the documentary, my feelings were very hurt and powerful because everything was true. It brought back memories of my losses for nothing, just to try to be on top and “in.” Fighting battles with each other is dumb when we should be fighting together for peace and to become something in life. Speak up and make the right choices as well as think before you do it. Is it really worth it? This documentary wants to make me go home and make better choices and do better.
• Very powerful. The film really talks about gangs and hoods and gets deep into why youth fight over hoods. Also, I felt everything was true in the documentary and I liked how they had teenagers explain and talk about gang and hood violence. It is an issue that is ridiculous and unnecessary to die over repping a hood, because it isn’t going to get you anywhere in life but prison or death. It makes you really sit back and think about how teens today think repping a hood and fighting over territory is so important, and necessary. I agree that teens today need more role models to follow to do the right thing.
• First off, I thought it was a very good movie. It showed the positive and negative effects on neighborhoods in New Haven. I felt very sorry for the lady that lost her son because no one can imagine how it feels to lose a child until it happens to a mother that never though such violence as this would take away the life of her son or daughter. Think about it: we can be the victim of a gunshot that was meant to go to someone else.
• The movie brought about a reality of violence in New Haven that I had heard about, but had never seen. It was a wake up call to me that things need to change and that we need to be the ones to help make this change happen. I was saddened by this movie. It was sad to see students comparing themselves to animals and it was sad to see the students representing such negative images. But I had hope to see youth talking in such positive ways about why it’s happening and talking about thinking before acting and/or reacting. Thinking about the whole picture: we need to take action.
• I really liked the short film. How it made me feel: guilty, sorry, hopeful, because I’m glad people (and students especially) have become so passionate about solving the problem of violence in New Haven. As someone from outside New Haven, it really helped me to better understand the situation.

What can be done to improve this conversation?

• To improve our conversation we can write down points that were made that we can specify with or interested us
• What is the follow-up? This is just scratching the surface. Who will be a part of this process and how will the youth most affected by marginalization, inadequate education, lack of resources, violence be brought to the table and to the process.
• This meeting was rushed and too scheduled. Wish we had more conversation time but great efforts and stepping up was both recognized and appreciated.
• What will happen with the information given by each group?
• This conversation needs to be continued in the communities in New Haven.
• Need to have dialogue in schools that are experiencing violence. I personally think that having this dialogue at a venue like ECA does not reach the majority of those that can contribute greatly to this dialogue.
• You should do this type of forum with educators to raise consciousness.
• We come up with good ideas, but we don’t have the resources, or we don’t know who to go to and get everything started.
  
  

Thoughts and Feelings:

• First of all, we need some help. Second of all, we need to realize that we would have so much power if we all just came together, used our voices and stopped being stupid. Teens have to have open minds. That’s the first step. And like I said, we need someone to help us. We need adults to realize teens are special and teens have talents and ideas. We just need people to help us do it.
• I was angry. I was angry at the fact that so many people believe that they have to “rep” a neighborhood. They took this repping thing to a much, much further extent. I mean it is okay to have pride in where you live but doing that does not require the immense amount of violence, killing, robbery, and crime that has been occurring. In my opinion, I think all of the violence that has been taking place is due to the adults, parents and youths’ lack of judgment, responsibility and maturity. I mean it takes quite an irresponsible and immature person to actually die or kill someone just over repping a hood.
• I felt almost as an outsider at first, being white and all. I almost feel like an enemy. I wasn’t really raised this way and it makes me feel sad and angry at the fact that these things happen just because people have nothing else to hold on to. How could people grow up like this? What has happened that brought this upon us? I’ve only really been introduced to this new culture this year. As I embraced it, I’ve learned what really goes on. What this culture is really all about. There has been so much that has been in the shadows. I feel like my life has been sheltered. It was cool though when they asked the youths what they thought about repping their hoods and stuff like that. I feel even more determined now than ever to put a stop to all this violence. I’m glad that we have created such amazing ways to help stop it all though. It’s things like Peace Jam, where youths can work together and speak out on violence.
• I feel that most of the things that were discussed and talked about in this film were true. I feel that we should try to do something to change it, because many young people wouldn’t want their kids to turn out how they were, or be exposed to it. It also makes me feel curious and worried because when I am older and have kids I wouldn’t want them to be exposed to it, like I am. I live in the T’re and it isn’t a good place to be exposed to, so I feel that we should try to change the community. It also makes me feel angry because many people claim that they rep such and such just to show someone else who they are or who they want to be.
• [The film] reminded me of some of the kids in my classes. It helped me to better understand where some of my students are coming from. I also felt really upset when the one girl compared people in different neighborhoods to dogs fighting over territory. Also, I don’t understand why people rep.

Recommendations to Others:

• Mental health component necessary and must be professional. Involve the schools from the top down. Redirect money from incarceration into programs for youth. Street outreach would reach drug culture. Need to be paid enough to risk their lives. Police – perception is not respected or respecting.
• Recognize youth talents. Bail doesn’t help. Youth are the future. More positive role models. Enforce a negative with a positive. Find the source of the problem. Reach out to the hood.
• Have programs that will get them off the streets. Have basketball competition, etc. Meet youth where they are and gain their trust.
• Build community centers for activity for the youths in their neighborhoods.
• Basketball tournaments. More youth programs located in more neighborhoods.
• More youth programs. Get out to the troubled youth.
• Have more basketball programs during the weekdays so teens will stop shooting each other and basically have something to do.
• I would like to see a detailed review of the schools’ teaching habits. Family life should be enforced. Teach each child who they are; what they represent; where their ancestors come from.
• Conflict mediation / positive communication. Mentoring young people. Developing young leaders. Teach kids where they come from: know your history; know what has come before; understand the present situation; build a future to look forward to
• (1) Try to reach out to others about how violence can affect our lives. (2) give youth jobs, make sure they become successful as they help themselves become successful. (3) Try to show hardcore kids that rep the hoods that they are loved and welcomed.
• To reduce violence: youth summer programs and activities.
• I think teens could go to school more they could get a job and help clean up the streets. Teens could talk to other adults and let them know what is going on and how they feel about their hood.
• I think the best way to reduce violence is to set up teen centers where teens go out to get involved in activities so that they aren’t on the streets repping their hood, getting shot or killed.
• (1) Have a mentor that used to be a gang member but changed his ways and is willing to talk to youth about gang violence. (2) Community centers: dance centers, talk centers, homework centers.
• Recreational facilities where the kids can have fun, and don’t think about what hood everyone came from. It will be a facility made just for kids to have fun, violence-free fun.
• Come together as a group and vote. Join organizations that make a difference. Take your talent to the next level and become successful in life.
• Help reduce youth violence: create hang out places for kids to go and stay off the streets; place these rec centers in between two hoods so they can bond and encourage them to as well.
• Recreational facilities (after school) and summer programs
• Mentoring, role models, and positive after-school programs, summer programs, rec centers

We're Back!

After a long hiatus off the blog (how did Blogger "eat" December's forum??), we're back. We're pleased to invite your comments for our next forum. Give us your ideas about the questions and issues we should tackle!

Another Summer of Youth Violence?

Not If You Live the Change

Join young people in a dialogue to be a part of the solution.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

5:30 p.m.

ACES Educational Center for the Arts

55 Audubon Street, 2^nd floor, New Haven, CT

Refreshments and sandwiches will be served.

RSVP by Monday, May 14, 2007

Call 777.2386 x7201

Questions? Call Angel Fernández-Chavero, 777.7072

Organized with TCF’s Communities of Color initiative

Last night's forum was terrific!

As I said to everyone, while we had a true celebrity in Tiffany Jackson to speak (and sing!) to us, every one of you was a star last night. I thank all of you for your participation and opinions. Thanks to New Haven Academy, Youth Rights Media, and LEAP in particular for their young people. Please feel free to post a comment here, email me or call me with your comments about what happened last night. I'll post proceedings once I've received some of your feedback... but in the meantime, let me say that I was very impressed by my table. It fascinated me to see how quickly the topic question was dismissed; that is, no one questioned the value of making art -- the money wasn't important. But what was important to you was that schools should offer more art, that it shouldn't just be an elective or a once-a-week offering. You also said that the community in general should offer more opportunities for people, especially youth, to participate in the arts. The Greater New Haven area, you all declared, was definitely a better place with art. Please tell me more.

Tiffany Jackson is coming!

We are very pleased to announce that Tiffany Jackson will be joining us for the October 26th Forum. She is a New Havener who is making a living as a world-class soprano in opera, and is on the faculty of the Neighborhood Music School. Check out her brief bio on NMS's website here, and her more extensive one here.

It's here: Feedback from ECA students

Yesterday we had a meeting with students from the Educational Center for the Arts, asking them to react to our draft agenda. Boy, did we get a reaction -- fearlessly strong and thoughtful.

Below is the original draft, with comments from the students bracketed and in italics adjacent to or underneath the appropriate section. Do you agree with them?

AGENDA

5:30pm	Sign-In, Mingle	Assign everyone to one of two groups: (1) YOUTH; or (2) ADULTS. [MIX ADULTS AND YOUTH -- don't separate us.]
5:45pm	Welcome and Introductions	Welcome & Introductions. Review Agenda/ Expectations
5:55pm	Small Mixed Group Discussions (25 min.)	Small Group Discussions will be facilitated byDialogue Project volunteers. [CONSIDER USING DIFFERENT QUESTIONS TO BEGIN, E.G., WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT ART OR HOW DOES ART CHANGE YOUR LIFE?]
	Questions/Instructions for Small Mixed Group Discussions	First, review ground rules for discussion and ask if anyone wants to suggest additional ground rules.Then ask: TELL US ABOUT ONE OF YOUR BEST ART EXPERIENCES – EITHER AS ARTIST OR AUDIENCE – IN THE NEW HAVEN AREA. [HOW ABOUT WORST ART EXPERIENCE? AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO IMPROVE IT? WHAT IF YOU ARE NEW TO NEW HAVEN?]
6:20pm	Break	Tell participants to take a 5-minute break
6:30pm	Tiffany Jackson	Introduce Tiffany Jackson, who will speak for 10 minutes?; then answer questions for 10 minutes?
6:50pm	FORM TWO GROUPS: YOUTH & ADULTS Instructions for these Two Group Discussions (35 min.)	Distribute index cards and pens to participants. (1) Ask people to take 2-3 minutes to think about one of the following questions, and ask them to write their thoughts on the index card: (A) TELL US ABOUT AN ART EXPERIENCE THAT CHALLENGED A STEREOTYPE YOU HAD ABOUT A GROUP OR INDIVIDUAL; (B) TELL US ABOUT AN ART EXPERIENCE THAT HELPED YOU INTERACT WITH OR UNDERSTAND A GROUP OR AN INDIVIDUAL BETTER THAN YOU HAD BEFORE. [THE PRECEDING QUESTIONS AND THE THIRD ONE ARE TOO NARROW AND HEAVY-HANDED, CONSIDER REVISING.] (2) Ask people to share their thoughts, until everyone has shared at least once. (3) Ask for any additional thoughts people want to share about “stereotype-challenging” or “barrier- crossing” art experiences.
7:25pm	Thanks & Good-By	As people leave, collect their index cards; people can’t leave until they give you their card. [MAKE THIS OPTIONAL.]

October 26 Forum: If You Can't Make Money, Why Make Art?

We're back! Join us for a new dialogue to explore with our community's young people a new question:

If You Can't Make Money, Why Make Art?

Thursday, October 26, 2006
5:30 p.m.
ACES Educational Center for the Arts
55 Audubon Street, 2nd floor, New Haven, CT
See below for directions and parking

Refreshments and sandwiches will be served.

RSVP by Monday, October 23rd, 2006

Click here to register or call 777.2386 x444
Questions? Call Angel Fernández-Chavero, 777.2386 x216
Or by email, afernandez@cfgnh.org

This is the tenth in a series of donor-community conversations. And the third 2006 conversation with youth.

Tell us what you think NOW! Help us shape this forum. Give us your comments:

• Do you need art? Does art make a difference? What does art mean to you?
• Why study art in school? Should schools even teach art?
• Is making money the only good reason to become an artist?
• Is making money the wrong reason to become an artist?

Directions and Parking to

ACES Education Center for the Arts
55 Audubon Street
New Haven, CT 06510
(203) 777-5451

DIRECTIONS
The Center is located on the corner of Audubon and Orange, across from The Community Foundation and Housing Authority offices. Use the Audubon Street entrance, immediately across the street from the parking garage.

FROM I-95
Take I-95 to I-91 North.
See I-91 instructions below.

FROM I-91
Take Exit 3.
At the end of the ramp, turn left onto Orange Street.
Turn right onto Grove Street.
Turn right onto Whitney Avenue.
Turn right onto Audubon Street.

PARKING:
The entrance to Audubon Court Parking Garage is located to your right as you come down Audubon Street, just before The Community Foundation building.

Feedback from August 8th Youth Forum

We're late, but we hope you still take the time to read the feedback, and to send us even more comments.

Responses to the Request to Give a Homework Assignment to Schools

Dialogue & Relationship-Building

• [Sponsor] a dialogue between the teachers and the students about caring, compassion and learning
• More dialogue and communication between teacher and students needed to help teachers make their classes more fulfilling
• Tell the students about life experiences to push the students
• Have a teacher sit and have a one-on-one relationship
• Be more helpful to one another
• Teachers need to help their students in whatever need they have because some students need more help than others
• For Career High School: Teachers who are positive role models and share their experiences in order to motivate and guide students
• Find ways to provide feedback on students on a weekly or monthly basis to their parents / guardians.
• Plan dialogues between teachers, students, administrators and parents facilitated by Community Mediation
• Increase relationship building between the adults and students in a school
• Teachers make time for your student. Help them understand their worth.
• Kids want teachers who are emotionally involved and there for their students – not those who hand them a worksheet and read a magazine while they do the work.
• There should be more conversation about the expectations of the teachers, students and parents. Maybe an informational newsletter about graduation vs. college-entrance requirements; student-parent conferences.
• There needs to be more information sharing.
• Some teachers are extremely helpful in giving extra attention to students who need it or ask for it. But, some teachers are not approachable or helpful – teacher training is needed.

Reaching All Students

• Commit to developing and supporting people with all different perspectives and learning styles
• Learn more about the cultures that their students come from to better understand their behaviors and why they don’t achieve as they should

Social diversity

• [Provide] general motivation to all students, not only those who are doing well in their grades
• I would like to see a system that better supports the needs of teachers, accountability that ensures quality teachers in our schools, and teachers that provide opportunities for all youth. No favoritism, encourage all youth to do their best so that youth can realize and reach their full potential, not just those that are the “star students”.
• Motivate everyone to do better not just the kids who are most likely to succeed.
• Watch out for the quiet but eager learner. Teachers should always be ready to help the student who asks… even when asking ever so quietly
• How do you bridge the gap for the ones that fall between the cracks?
• [Teach to] different learning styles

Exploration by Schools & Teachers

• Describe what changes you would make to your school to make it more challenging and fulfilling to all the students
• Go to the other classes that are known for excellence and learn better ways to teach students certain skills needed not just in the classroom but also out of school
• Find out the ratio: for every household/student who has a set of parents/parent that cares, how many don’t or are not involved or not respondent.
• [Sponsor] a forum with teachers to discuss “why some teachers don’t care?” What’s different about teaching now than before?
• Challenge yourself at something you are not good at and plan what you want in life.
• Challenge yourself at something that you’re not good at. Write an essay on how you felt doing it. What changed? What you did, and would it be something that you could do on a regular basis?

School Staffing

• Seek out the kids in the non-magnet schools who are at the high schools in New Haven and pair them up with a mentor – establish an on-going relationship where they meet – to discuss life, school, ambitions and managing life as it unfolds for them – spend time together – commitment of time and presence
• Use student teachers more to help connect parents and teachers
• For all the large urban school districts: what guidance and support is available to students? How many guidance counselors are available? What is the counselor / student ratio? What professional development opportunities are available to teachers to better engage students in learning?
• Value the role of the guidance counselor and decrease the ratio of students to guidance counselors. Have the same student – guidance counselor relationship last for the full 4 years of high school- explain how the relationship can and should work
• Increase availability of guidance counselors
• Make sure there are at least 2 to 3 guidance counselors in each school (elementary, middle school and high school).
• Increase the number of guidance counselors and make sure they know their kids and help them think about the steps they need to take to be prepared for life after high school
• Assure more support services for all children, especially grades 4 to 9.

Motivate Learning

• Find out students’ interests and gear the learning towards those interests
• Instructors of courses should develop two ideas to make their subject more meaningful in today’s world.
• Have fun with learning
• Let the school know to push everybody and to not push certain people
• Challenge more in work all around
• Find out what students consider fun ways to learn that are still effective and implement them
• Make their school more engaging and warm. I am encouraging them to have their students want to come to school and to have teachers who care about their students more than their jobs
• Train the teachers in how to involve the students in their learning process – less lecture / more interactive learning to help the students learn how to learn.
• Schools in the urban communities: Work harder to motivate the youth. From the youth that I spoke with, what resounded and was reiterated the most was that their schools had low expectations for them, so they didn’t motivate or push the students. The schools basically need to CARE.
• Have to interest and engage youths in developing meaningful knowledge and life skills
• Help teachers (through pre-teacher prep and/or in-service) to create engaging classroom instruction and find a personal passion for their subject matter. Youth can tell when teachers do (or don’t) care about what they’re teaching and it makes a huge difference in how the kids feel about the subject matter
• Hire teachers or train existing educators to have high expectations for students and be prepared to empower pupils to meet these expectations
• Keep high expectations for all young people in high school
• Encourage all young people to go to secondary education: college, training, etc.

Standardized Testing Concerns

• [Build] better skills for standardized testing, classes to teach more about standardized testing like CAPT.
• Go to a class to learn the proper skills needed to teach students how to pass standardized tests
• Stop teaching to the standardized test
• Demand that the government prove that the standardized tests really predict future success
• Try to find a way to get kids to graduate without the “no child left behind” and the graduation test
• Kids and parents are sick of teachers having to “teach to the test.” Standardized testing sucks the life out of a creative curriculum.

Courses of Study

• Have set specific courses for certain types of professions or something along the lines of a certain profession that each student wants, like computer or science or teaching itself
• Find ways to place all students in at least one college track course in both math and English or in math, English and science.
• Integrate classes across subject areas
• Move / have a national / universal school system with the same lessons. If that cannot come to pass, eliminate SATs
• Have physical education classes a choice
• Give text books that are relevant and appropriate to each grade level
• [Offer] some new classes and career choice paths for more than one major
• [Offer] physical education and healthy lifestyle classes
• Kids want a well-rounded curriculum so they can have a better knowledge of what they need to follow the best path towards something that will help them in the future. They need a path.
• Find a way to connect topics or subjects in school to real life situations – either those currently pertinent to teens or to a future career path they may choose

Social Development & Enrichment Activities

• For Jonathon Law School in Milford: there are so many clubs yet no one knows about them because your options are so poorly advertised. Law should make the programs more known especially to the freshman coming in and just starting their high school careers.
• Require students to write a short reflective essay. Things to include: what was the most valuable thing(s) I learned in school this year? How have I improved from my start in September academically, socially, etc.? Am I prepared for the next level?
• [Offer the] opportunity for involvement to all students
• Help all students develop a set of values for life
• Create a context of appreciation for continual learning and not just a focus on content of subjects and courses, which may be irrelevant to the needs of tomorrow, by the time the students graduate
• Teach the truth
• For West Haven High School: find a way to accommodate ALL students in school activities (rather than catering to “involved” students). All students should have a voice and not have their voice drowned out by louder, more outgoing voices.
• [Provide] required time for social development
• [Provide] creative classroom activities in which students can show different kinds of knowledge and skills including social skills
• Focus on every child’s overall healthy development, not just grades.
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of each student and identify opportunities for all students
• Develop programs that will cater to the needs of most students

Overall Comment

• My group (2 youths) loved their schools. They had no complaints. The group also explored many of the programs within the 2 large high schools too. Actually, I came here expecting to hear awful reports. I am amazed and so happy that there are so many great programs in high schools.

We really welcome your comments.