A Former Strong Camp Summer Fellow in South Africa

Posted on May 14, 2013 by fullcirclesfoundation

Rebekah Israel was a Summer Fellow with the Raleigh Strong Camps in the summer of 2012. Since then, she has continued to work on issues related to girls’ empowerment, economic justice, and sustainability. In this entry, Rebekah shares with us her recent experiences in South Africa, where she participated in an alternative break trip that focused on gender equality, youth empowerment, and HIV/AIDS. Read on!

Hello world! My name is Rebekah Israel and I had the honor to work with Full Circles in the summer of 2012. It was an incredible experience and I feel blessed to have met all the girls of the 2012 Strong Camps. Since then, I trekked back to Washington, D.C. where I currently attend graduate school at American University. At American, I spent most of my time this past fall semester planning an alternative break trip that would become instrumental to who I am and what I want to do with my life. Alternative breaks provide students an opportunity to engage in a particular social justice issue either domestically or abroad during one of their breaks from school. “Alt breaks” usually incorporate a service component in which students work on specific project in addition to a learning component that stresses the connection of specific experiences to broader social justice issues.

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Kids in the Garden and Community Support

Posted on May 13, 2013 by hinahara

It’s already been a busy month in Middleton!

Kids in the Garden: We just wrapped-up our first after school program! We had a wonderful five weeks learning about the greenhouse and seed starting, planning dream gardens, preparing the garden for planting, and cooking!

Showing off their dream gardens

We made many tasty seasonal dishes with the kids including carrot muffins, apple crisp, spinach frittata, and oven fries. Our snack for the last day of the program was 5 weeks in the making: we planted greens in the greenhouse back in April and they were finally big enough to harvest for a tasty salad. We made a home made balsamic vinaigrette dressing and enjoyed the fruits of our labors 🙂 Continue reading →

A Year of Solutions

Posted on May 7, 2013 by rubylevine

This post is by Kwame Ntiri Owusu-Daaku, program leader at Iowa City Summer of Solutions.

I can’t believe I have changed this much in a year. I can’t believe I’ve stayed involved this much for a year either. What started out as a the need to find a summer internship in Iowa City has turned into an amazing journey of discovery from which I’m moving on to a PhD in Geography in which I plan to focus on development and climate change adaptation.

Kwame learns to caulk a window.

I came to Iowa City in August 2011 to begin a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Iowa. Before then, climate change for me was something Americans and Europeans rambled on about. Coming from Ghana, I was more concerned about social and economic sustainability than environmental protection and preservation. For me then, the tensions inherent in environment versus people and economy saw an obvious winner – I wasn’t about to let people continue to be impoverished while the ground lay fallow. I’ve expanded my thought processes since then and now I have no clear cut solutions. Continue reading →

Full Circles Foundation Spring 2013 Updates!

Posted on May 7, 2013 by fullcirclesfoundation

FCF Joins One Billions Rising along with other Community Organizations

On February 15, Full Circles Foundation joined Cirque de Vol for an event celebrating One Billion Rising, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. Seventy-five people came together to enjoy a parade/march in downtown Raleigh, speakers and performers, and a local market and non-profit fair. Part of the donations received throughout the day went to support the 2013 Raleigh Strong Camp! One Billion Rising organizer, Grayson Gant, reports that “on the day of and during the event, people were smiling at us, running through the hills of downtown to join us in our march, stomping their feet and honking their horns at us as we marched by. It was beautiful to see Raleigh come alive and I was proud to see they welcomed our approach to sharing love, joy, and our vision for a beautiful and healthy world!” Grayson says she was particularly touched by “two women who had three children with them who joined our march – one lady asked us what we were marching for and I told her – she proceeded to tell me that last month her ex had severely beaten her and broken her nose in several places- we both teared up and we hugged and I told her I was happy she was with us today- they stayed with us for the rest of the march and for the public speaking events that followed on the lawn. It felt very healing, empowering and intense.”

**Many thanks to Cirque de Vol for including FCF Raleigh in this amazing day of empowerment.**

Community members supporting One Billion Rising in Downtown Raleigh!

Partnership Highlight: Center for Human – Earth Restoration (CHER) and FCF Unite! Continue reading →

Getting Girls in the Know

Posted on April 30, 2013 by hinahara

Generation Know is a program started by the members of Girls For a Change, a non-profit organization sponsored by U by Kotex. The mission of Girls For a Change and Generation Know is to end the taboo about vaginas and women’s health by empowering girls and getting them to talk. As a society we don’t talk about the vagina, we might occasionally refer to it in a degrading way in a rap song or a movie but we don’t really just talk about what it is and what it needs.

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Announcing Hartford’s Spring Fundraising Campaign on IOBY!

Posted on April 26, 2013 by soshartford

Communities Together for a Better Future – SOS Oakland Summer Camp

Posted on April 26, 2013 by hinahara

Hello. Today is nearing the end of April. Anahi and Sergio, Program Leaders of SOS Oakland, are working hard on getting everything ready for this year’s summer camp. “We are very excited for this year’s summer camp. Last year I was part of SOS Oakland and I really enjoyed it,” says Sergio, “Working with kids and with my peers was a very exciting and fun experience. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to return this year not only as a part of it but as a Program Leader.”

SOS Oakland camp gives the opportunity to youth to be a part of the community. They get to work with kids and have the opportunity to obtain the skill of being leaders themselves. This program is quite grabbing, “I heard so many good things about last year’s program from Sergio that it caught my attention. I liked the fact that teens got to work together and collaborate as a team to put together last year’s camp for the kids,” says Anahi. Continue reading →

Greetings from Sunny Minnesota

Posted on April 23, 2013 by patricialamas

Preschoolers everywhere are probably wondering what kind of alleged May flowers are supposed to come out of these April showers.

It’s almost May in Minnesota, and spring is in the air!

…Except maybe for the two massive snow storms we got this week.

It’s sure pretty to look at, but it isn’t quite making for optimal planting conditions. Earlier this year, I mentioned in another solutionaries.net blog post that my joint positions as a Summer of Solutions program leader and a waitress might breed some sort of synergy. As it turns out, Twin Cities SoS will be tending a garden for Gandhi Mahal Fine Indian Cuisine. The restaurant started a pilot garden project last summer, and is expanding this year to include several more plots. Ours will be at the site of the first garden, as pictured in the blog post. Of course at this rate, only time will tell if we’ll just end up growing Thai chili pepper popsicles. Maybe we would be better suited toward a Gandhi Mahal ice fishing venture? Continue reading →

Voice, Courage, Action

Posted on April 22, 2013 by ArianaShapiro

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 →

Gearing Up For Summer

Posted on April 20, 2013 by hinahara

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 →

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Category Archives: Summer of Solutions