Category Archives: Local Programs

Voice, Courage, Action

Posted on by
Reply

Originally posted, Feb 13, 2013

By Mary Anne Rojas

Summer of Solutions Ithaca is seizing what was once considered to be unimaginable and inaccessible in our time. Reminder, with the histories of revolutions, thus, the ability to see ourselves in mirrors, our generation is doing the imaginable and accessible. This summer, Ithaca will be multiplying this effort for a Sustainable Future. As a generation, we are proving to confront our courage by creating spaces where fear is molded into endurance. In case you are wondering, a Sustainable future is a solution already. Now, what do we do?

As you may have heard, New York State announced yesterday afternoon that the February deadlines will be missed, the reason given being that more time is necessary for the state’s health review. This is a magnificent opportunity to move forward with action and reaching out to more communities to ensure our voices are heard. Today enriches our generations goal by making evident that action asks and promises solution. This morning marks the day when Governor Cuomo was due to release the SGEIS and in doing so move ahead with fracking. Today, communities are sending appreciations to everyone’s courageous commitments and amazing work; we are celebrating all efforts. Though, we are aware of this journeys extended commitment, we are in agreements that this is also a beginning to a beautiful solution. Continue reading →

Finding Kind

Posted on by
Reply

This morning through my other job with the a middle school, I viewed a screening of the documentary Finding Kind with over 600 6th and 7th grade students. Briefly, Finding Kind features two mothers and daughters who travel cross-country spreading the importance of being kind to girls from kindergarten to 12th grade. The film focuses on “the girl world,” specifically the ways in which girls bully and mistreat other girls through name-calling, spreading rumors, and essentially, lowering each others self esteem.

Continue reading →

Gearing Up For Summer

Posted on by
Reply

As spring arrives, Full Circles Foundation Lexington is gearing up for summer! We getting ready to hire two new Summer Fellows and are preparing our spring fundraiser, which will be held at Lexington’s Orange Leaf. While supporters chow on tasty frozen yogurt, FCF Program Leaders, Summer Fellows, and volunteers will be on location spreading the importance of our three goals: supporting girls’ personal health and wellness, building girls’ skills and confidence as community change-agents, and fostering girls’ appreciation for the interdependence of life on earth. 

We have also been hard at work recruiting future camp participants, by meeting with guidance counselors and social workers from local middle schools. We recently found out that at least 8 campers from last summer will be joking us for our second year, and we couldn’t be more excited! We are working on developing a mentor/mentee program in which campers from last year assist in guiding new campers through FCF’s Strong Camps.  Continue reading →

Listening to the Community

Posted on by
Reply

Summer of Solutions Ithaca continues to be hard at work with both fundraising and program development. It’s been a busy month for us… we’ve spent late nights furiously typing away on google docs for a grant application, spent hours on conference calls figuring out programming and application criteria, and tossed emails back and forth about housing decisions.

After spending many hours together trying to articulate our personal visions of program outcomes, key learnings, and goals for the project, we realized that our program and our community could benefit from a youth listening project. A listening project is a powerful organizing tool for nonviolent social change. A listening project builds trust and channels of communication within a community. It is a positive and sustainable form of community engagement that strengthens the ties people have to each other. It makes our communities more resistant and resilient to threats and injustices. By conducing a listening project and training for it in conjunction with our training institute, we can lay the groundwork for young people to engage in our community for future projects, actions, and communications around hydraulic fracturing, race, class, and other difficult topics.  Continue reading →

A Day of Empowerment Leads to a Garden in the Sun

Posted on by
1

There are many BIG moves to come for the Little Rock, Arkansas based Summer of Solutions program.  We began the month of April with a Garden Work day on Saturday, April 6, 2013, which we hosted in conjunction with the Better Community Development’s Community Block Party.

Image

Working in the garden on 12th and Oak Street

Image

Better Community Development’s  Community Block Party

Continue reading →

As Chicago thaws, things are heating up for LETS GO Chicago

Posted on by
Reply

LETS GO Chicago members have been quite busy throughout the late winter and early spring and we are excited to tell you why. As Chicago thaws, the Rogers Park solutionaries are revving up for their fourth season of gardening, community building, youth empowerment and more. We have been preparing for our spring garden since early March by planting seedlings in our new greenhouse in West Rogers Park. Through a new partnership with the Westwood Manor Nursing Home, we are breathing life into the 18 by 32 foot space with the help of nursing home residents. The greenhouse is allowing us to select a wider range of crop varieties while providing a valuable learning experience for all involved.

20130313_120730

The greenhouse at Westwood Manor

Come mid-May, we will also be adding a community garden to this open space on the nursing home grounds:

westwood_gardens

Future site of a community garden

Continue reading →

Food Justice at the CT River Academy

Posted on by
Reply

Summer of Solutions Hartford is one of a few local organizations participating in the food justice workshop series at the CT River Academy in East Hartford, CT. Last week, we had a booth at their food justice fair. Students had an hour in the fair to talk to representatives from urban farms, seed companies, dining services, green jobs organizations, and local food producers.

At our booth, we had information about the program, and an origami seed pot activity. We had a big box of soil, some basil, parsley, and flower seeds, and a lot of newspaper.

IMG_6823Each student learned how to fold a square of newspaper into a little seed pot, and then planted some seeds to take home! The boxes turn out impressively sturdy. Continue reading →

GREENevada Student Leadership Retreat

Posted on by
Reply

In the past GREENevada has hosted the Student Sustainability Summit twice, once in April 2011 and again in April 2012. All northern Nevada high schools were invited to participate. Students performed live presentations in front of a panel of distinguished judges, as well as friends, family, and members of the community.

GREENevada – Growing Resources for Environmental Education in Nevada. GREENevada is a coalition of eight non-profit organizations: Alliance for Climate Education, Black Rock Solar, Envirolution, GreenPower, Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful, Sierra Nevada Journeys, Urban Roots Garden Classroom, Reno Bike Project.

Schools are encouraged to seek help from any or all of our organizations to help bring sustainability into their classrooms.

We believe that every school can be green and every child can learn global responsibility through local example. Together, we can transform the way students learn.Image

This year for 2013 we did things a little different  than in the past. Instead of a competition where schools are working against each other for prize money to fund a sustainable project in their school. we decided to host a youth retreat for students passionate about the sustainability of our community where youth can network, build leadership skills, and learn how to work as a team. We called it the GREENevada Student Leadership Retreat — a 2-day green leadership extravaganza. It happened Friday and Saturday, March 22-23, 2013.

Continue reading →

Picking the Best Beehive

Posted on by
Reply

Despite the rain and the cold, summer in Bulgaria is approaching fast. Our team is trying hard to get things ready for the SoS and beekeeping season.

We are encountering the first difficulties with meeting our goals and deadlines…As we need to purchase some initial equipment; we turned to advice to local beekeepers and friends, who could direct us to the best source. One of our mentors recommended a Bulgarian company that makes demonstration beehives with a glass wall and a lid to cover it. Those would be perfect, we thought. The glass wall is covered, and light cannot bother the bees too much. They have a good design and are interactive—easy to show children, and a good asset for the University Botanical Garden, who have accepted our request for outdoor space. We managed to see how these look like and take a picture in front of the Hilton Hotel. Continue reading →