Tag Archives: The Foundation to be Named Later/ John W. Henry Family Foundation

Students Serve at the Higginson-Lewis

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Article written by Peter Bass, corps member serving on the Foundation to be Named Later/John W. Henry Family Foundation Boston Civic Engagement Team

A series of inspirational quotes from leaders like Malcolm X and Einstein were painted on the walls, which the students now look up and read as they walk down the halls…

On the morning of Saturday, March 26, the hallways of the Higginson-Lewis School in Roxbury were painted a drab white and blue, with few decorations.  They were not really much to look at, unless you happen to have an unusual interest in drywall.  That morning, though, volunteers from Bain Capital, Peace First and teachers and students from the school assembled together and spent the day making those hallways much more interesting to look at, and made the school a more exciting place to be for the students.

A series of inspirational quotes from leaders like Malcolm X and Einstein were painted on the walls, which the students now look up and read as they walk down the halls.  Four benches were built with images painted on the backrest, a mural was painted on the second floor, and other similar beautifications took place all around the school.

Check out the full Flickr album here, as well as the photos below!

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What is the Boston Civic Engagement Team? In addition to helping schools and students reach new heights in academic performance, one team of City Year corps members recruits and mobilizes volunteers to transform school communities through physical service projects, such as building outdoor classroom spaces, landscaping and revitalizing sports and recreation spaces, painting murals, planting gardens, construction and creating playspaces. By engaging community members, corporate partners and civic leaders in this work, corps members help share the power of service to make positive, holistic change.

The Next Generation

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This post was originally written on April 27th by Emily Ostroff, a returning senior corps member for the 2010-2011 year, and team leader for the Boston Civic Engagement team. This post highlights a small but very mighty portion of our service here at City Year Boston.

Not many people enjoy scraping the paint off old walls as much as my supervisor, but a few days ago someone gave her a run for her money.

After working hard on panel murals for a long time, prepping an outdoor service day is a whole different ball game. In this case, we spent last week getting to know the kids in the community surrounding the John Marshall Elementary School in Dorchester. We taped off lines around their basketball games and often had an audience and constant stream of questions from young neighbors. Mid-week, one such local third grader wandered around to a wall we were scraping. I asked if she’d ever scraped paint off a wall, and she said yes. I asked if she wanted to help, and she said yes. At first, she peeled off loose chips, but eventually she just picked up her own scraper and went at it. We chatted. Her favorite subject in school. Science! Her favorite part of science? Bugs! Did I know the “City Years” at her school, the Holmes, down the street? Yes!

Periodically, my young friend, called “Lady” by her peers, would jump up, trying to get her playmates to come help. They didn’t understand what she was doing, or why. But her passion gave me heart. I do believe it is the Ladys of the world that will someday convince their friends why what we do is important. It makes me feel like our murals, our work and our spirit are in good hands. I hope she never loses that.

Boston Volunteer Meetup and City Year Boston

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Please take a second to check out this contribution from Josh Konoff, leader of Boston Volunteer Meetup and a frequent volunteer at our service days:

I lead The Boston Volunteer Meetup and my group celebrates a lot of events with City Year. You guys and girls do a great job!

I recently volunteered at your event at the Mather Elementary School. Building benches. Painting murals. Chatting with the students who will be enjoying our dilligence! What a beautiful day. Thank you for organizing. I loved the event. Discover what other members said: http://www.bostonvolunteer.org/calendar/13109245/?from=list&offset=0.

We will keep on volunteering with you!  :)

We would like to wholeheartedly thank Josh and Boston Volunteer Meetup for all of the spectacular work they’ve done this year. Please visit their site for forthcoming volunteer projects.

With These Powers Combined

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Ironically, it started while passing notes in class. Well, maybe not class – it was a few months ago during a presentation on strategic plans for the future of City Year Boston, but close enough. Though I serve on our Civic Engagement team, the note came from Jon Hinthorne, a corps member on a Whole School, Whole Child team at the Tobin School. We were both bursting with our own ideas about how to make City Year’s programs even stronger than they already are: we’re good at many things; why not combine our powers?

Within half an hour, we found like-minded peers in City Heroes team member Daniel Caesar-Rodin and Young Heroes’ Keri Notartomaso. Over the following weeks, the four of us dreamed up a pilot service day to be tested at Jon’s school. If it were a recipe, it would look something like this:

Serves: 25-30 Starfish, 6-10 Heroes, and any interested parents/family

Ingredients:

  • 1 group Starfish after-school students
  • a few City and Young Heroes interested in mentoring and helping lead a service learning program for elementary school students
  • 9 mini physical service projects and supplies

Instructions:

  1. Plan project and get teammates invested
  2. Convince Heroes to get involved, then train them
  3. Prepare Starfish with service learning curriculum
  4. Pull tools and supplies, bring to school
  5. Mix well and enjoy!

The result was magical. Part Whole School, Whole Child, part Heroes and part Civic Engagement, watching the children paint pride murals for their school and build a bench was City Year at its best. More Starfish attended that day than any other. The spirit of the partnership continues on with a program that unites Heroes with Starfish for mentoring and tutoring. And we’re especially excited at the interest we have already received from other schools.

So what do you think? What else can we do to help unite our programs?

Who Knew Databases Could Be This Fun?!

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One of my particularly exuberant CYFK participants enjoys the clay he made in science lab

I have fallen in love with a database.

Well, actually, I have a love/hate relationship with my database. It sure takes a lot out of me, keeping my database updated, and sometimes it closes without saving, but it usually redeems itself with its wealth of information.

If you read this blog – and you should – you probably already know about City Year For Kids. You’ll get to learn about children full of joy and exuberance, filled with inspiring stories who came to our vacation program. I know these children, and they’re great, but I thought I’d give you a new perspective on CYFK. As the recruitment director at one of our sites, I knew our campers (at least on paper) before most of the Corps had even started to think about that faraway week in February. I knew their allergies and their family members and their parents’ handwriting. I knew the anxious participant who asked me over the phone if we could have Burger King for lunch. I was curious about the family whose five children spanned the program’s full age range, and I wondered if the siblings who spoke Ibo at home would teach us any during the week.

Still, I surprised even myself when our doors opened on that Monday morning. As children came pouring in, my whole database suddenly came to life. I had never been so excited to meet the families of the 180 youth we worked so hard to reach. My database – it gave me a chance to connect not only to the program participants but also to the parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends whose eyes lit up when they realized that someone knew them, that someone had taken such care of the information that would ensure their child a safe and welcoming environment at CYFK.

So thank you, database, for introducing me to 179 of the best children living in Boston. The last one was from Randolph.