Source: acelebrationofwomen.org

Although Thanksgiving is widely acclaimed as a day of feasts, family, friends, fun and football (the five F’s of Thanksgiving, but that is another post), it is important to remember that the first Thanksgiving was truly all about community. In SOTRU fashion, we would like to honor some organizations and communities embracing and perpetuating the spirit of the oldest American holiday tradition.

• Some folks at The Giving Heart organization in Richmond, Virginia, will celebrate Thanksgiving with The Giving Heart Community Thanksgiving Feast. Everyone in the greater Richmond area is invited, but a special invitation is sent “to the less fortunate, the elderly and those who would otherwise spend Thanksgiving alone.” At the end of this holiday feast, guests will be given a floral arrangement commemorating their celebration and have the opportunity to pick up a few necessities for staying warm, including a Giving Bag, consisting of “toiletries and other essential items that are created by many” in their community.

• Equinox Inc., a community service organization out of Albany, New York, will be hosting its 42nd Annual Equinox Thanksgiving Day Community Dinner. This long-standing tradition originally started in 1969, feeding 200 college students who were without family. Whether it is at a designated community location, or delivered straight to their door, today, more than 8,000 individuals who are lonely, homebound or homeless neighbors are served. This is truly a community-led effort, enlisting the help of around 3,000 community volunteers who make this day possible. “The Equinox Thanksgiving Community Dinner is funded entirely by generous donations from local businesses, civic groups, and private citizens. Cash, food, trucks, tables and chairs, cell phones, serving dishes, linens, aprons, soap, towels, and advertising are matched by the valuable help of our volunteers. Equinox is the coordinating and sponsoring agency. All surplus donations are used to assist needy families throughout the year.”

• And in Santa Monica, California, the Westside Thanksgiving Community Dinner and Celebration hosts a day filled with surprises, giving families and community members a lot of reasons to be thankful. “The Celebration is open to everyone. No reservations are necessary… just come to the 
Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Thanksgiving day.  Dinner from 11am – 3pm.” But it doesn’t stop at dinner. All can participate in a day of free services that include: Thanksgiving Dinner, Children’s Entertainment, Basic Medical Consultation, Clothing Distribution, Haircuts, and Basic Eye Exams.

Source: www2.timesdispatch.com

Kudos to these communities who practice the foundations of what Thanksgiving was first based upon: friendship, caring, sharing and being good stewards of humankind. During these times that are so often overwhelming and harrowing, communities such as these have become a mecca to American tradition. Thank you for your sacrifices, kindness, and caring. Thank you for your shining example of subservience, strength and leadership. And most of all, thank you for restoring a bit of  faith that some individuals have been working hard to chip away at. For this, we should all give thanks.

City Year’s “Ubuntu” Philosophy

Students, schools, education reform, policy and educational politics … there seems to be a never-ending stream of checklist items for America’s schools. With the mounting complications for our education system, it is easy to lose sight of simple solutions – us. That’s right, you and me. In past SOTRU School Spotlights, educational initiatives such as American Graduate and Grade Level Reading have been explored, highlighting efforts to close the gap on various educational concerns. For this week’s School Spotlight, we’re highlighting another community based effort to improve education, City Year.

Source: contributionsreport.amgen.com

According to its Web site, City Year is a country-wide school-based service organization providing “teams of diverse young people called corps members [who] serve full-time in schools for 10 months working to improve student attendance, behavior and course performance in English and math.”

GOOD Magazine’s A City Education series explores what motivates City Year corps volunteer members’ service to the public education system. (To read the original post in its entirety, click here.)

The commonality found in City Year’s members can be summed up with one word: Ubuntu. A shortened version of meaning for this a Zulu proverb is “I am a person through other people. My humanity is tied to yours.” One member said her reason for joining was because she thrived in a community environment where a shared goal and vision became a catalyst for action. Through working at the school, these members have learned “how to effectively connect students, parents, and community resources to ensure students excel.”

There are many service opportunities provided by City Year corps members. Whether it’s one on one tutoring, assisting teachers in classrooms or helping with homework centers in after school programs, these corps members are making a difference.

Although the City Year model is new, support for community schools is growing. According to the article, “In 2009, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan expressed his support, saying, ‘Where schools truly become the centers of the community, great things happen.’”

The symbol representing "Ubuntu" - Source: acercadeubuntu.blogspot.com

Megan Malone, a City Year corps member says of her time so far with City Year, “Serving with City Year in a community school, I am reminded every day of Ubuntu as I experience firsthand a model that illustrates the importance of connecting our humanity to those inside the school and in the community. I have no doubt that helping students succeed requires a community effort, and I’m looking forward to seeing the results of our shared vision and collective action.”

Delving into school and the politics behind education, it is quite easy to lose focus on what all of the fuss is about: our children and how best to provide them with a quality education. The notion of Ubuntu should ring true for all citizens. Perhaps understanding the philosophy behind “I am a person through other people. My humanity is tied to yours” will help us all get there.

There are so many great ways that education is changing, and seeing people in communities mobilize change through their own actions is an encouraging start. The  “it takes a village” approach, I am finding, is an earmark in many great educational solutions that are rapidly popping up. What other community actions do you know of that have made a difference in your schools? We are always interested in passing along success stories of community, so write it down and send it our way.

Still Rising from the Ashes

We are proud to announce that today begins the release of the new SOTRU fall season! The first episode gives us an intimate look at the Bronx, NY.

The Bronx has long been seen as a symbol of America’s failings.  For many people here, ‘making it’ means escaping the crime and poverty of their borough.  But some have refused to flee. This episode shines a light on the hold-outs and the dreamers, people who’ve committed their lives to keeping chaos at bay in the Bronx.

To listen to the Bronx, NY: Still Rising from the Ashes episode in its entirety, click here.

The rest of the new SOTRU episodes will be released over the next four days. Take a trip with Al as you listen to him tell the stories of men and women throughout our communities. After becoming engrossed in the Bronx, NY episode,  you can lose yourself some more in: the Mississippi Gulf Coast; Southern Wyoming; Cleveland, OH; and Sacramento, CA.

There has been much reflecting and revisiting tales of “where were you on 9/11″ and investigating how this infamous event impacted lives all across the nation. We’ve heard from those who lost people to this day, and while the airways have been justly saturated with stories, we at State of the Re:Union thought it might be interesting to hear how the “Aftermath Generation” of 9/11 has been formed by the day. Our SOTRU intern Brit McGinnis helps us with that insight.

Where were you when what it meant to be an American changed?

I was at school, in class. Elk Meadow Elementary School, Mrs. Krakow’s fifth grade class in Bend, Oregon. I remember all of us being told that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City and that people could be hurt.

The news didn’t compute at first. I didn’t understand why everyone was so upset— my little-kid sense of distance between the East Coast and the West Coast made the Twin Towers feel so far away. I wanted to ask, “Why is everyone so sad?” Other children were tense, as if waiting for some boogeyman terrorist to suddenly appear in the hallway. I excused myself to the bathroom, noticing that the halls seemed much more quiet than before. My footsteps echoed more loudly.

I watched the news all the time that week. I wanted to understand what this meant for my country. Before that day, I had only seen the scrolling bars showing updated news once on CNN, but now they were everywhere. For the first time, I was afraid. Not of terrorists attacking our country, but of how the country as a whole was going to react to what was happening. I suddenly became afraid of all the grownups around me becoming impetuous and doing something stupid.

We need to think, I kept thinking. We can’t just react. For the first time, I understood what it meant to feel helpless as a citizen.

I started reading the newspaper more and more, a reaction prompted by this event. I was young and I couldn’t yet vote. But I wanted to know what was going on, and I felt that I had to know as soon as possible. I read about the different countries, what the “big people in charge” were doing. I had to know, because I couldn’t be ignorant anymore.

I’ve found that this was a common reaction among my cohort. No matter if it was a lot or a little, people my age were awakened to the events of the world. We wanted to know what Al-Qaeda was. Where were Iraq and Iran? What did the president want to do now, and why? Opinions were suddenly spouting from everyone about the actions of the country. We kids learned to listen.

As my peers and I grew older, we became infatuated with the media. We wanted to make YouTube videos and Facebook pages — proof that we were still here, that we were still alive and kicking after all the tragedy that had occurred in our short lives. Programs like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart exploded in popularity, due to the fact that we still desperately wanted to know what was going on in our world.

This awakening of a generation, though it was an effect of a horrendous tragedy, has made this coming generation likely one of the most intellectually formidable generations in America’s history. We wanted to know everything that happened due to the tragedy we barely understood at the time. We were too young to understand, but not too young to learn.

The tragic events of 9/11 made community-minded citizens out of an entire generation of young people, because it made us want to learn about the workings of our country and the world. Who can truly, effectively terrorize a nation of knowledge-seeking people?

There are pivotal moments in our lives, be they big, small, tragic or ordinary, affecting changes in the way that we do things. Are you a participant and voice in the Aftermath Generation? If so, do you think 9/11 has forged the way you operate? Are its effects truly defining your generation? If so, what is the one thing that changed in your/your cohorts actions or thinking? Did it make you more curious about religion or culture, suspicious of strangers? Perhaps it made you more impetuous, callous, thoughtful or forgiving? Think about it, write it down and send it to us. We would love to learn more about the future of the men and women in our communities.

Like most people I’ve always thought of truancy or chronic absenteeism as a high school phenomenon, but according to experts the problem can affect student performance at an earlier age. In some school districts, in fact, the absentee rate in kindergarten is almost as high as it is for ninth graders. The National Center for Childhood Poverty says that one in 10 kindergarten and first-grade students is chronically absent, although the absentee rates very significantly from district to district.

Source: Manning

Kids miss school for different reasons, but one thing is clear; too many missed school days, whether excused or unexcused, can have a huge impact on student performance, especially among low income kids.

In an article I’m preparing for the National Civic Review, authors Hedy N. Chang and Phyllis W. Jordan describe what three school districts—Baltimore, New York and Oakland, California—are doing to address chronic absenteeism. In Baltimore, for example, the mayor’s office, the Open Society Institute-Baltimore and the local school district teamed up to make attendance a top community priority, enlisting a number of local organizations in a community-wide effort to bring down rates of absenteeism. Students made videos on the importance of attendance. Church members contact the families of chronically absent children to find out what the problem is. OSI-Baltimore grants focused on homeless kids and foster-children, two groups of kids that typically have high rates of absenteeism.

Baltimore’s Franklin Square Elementary and Middle School used a carrot and stick approach to create a “culture of attendance.” The principal meets with the family of every new student and emphasizes the important of attendance. The school attendance monitor calls the home of every absent student. After three days the family gets a letter. If the problem persists, the principal calls the home.

But the staff also tries to make the school environment a place where kids want to be with engaging after school programs and extras like dental clinics and haircuts for students who want or need them. Despite a mostly low income student population and pretty crowded classrooms, Franklin has one of the highest attendance rates in the district.

It seems pretty clear that focusing laser-like on a problem like absenteeism can make a big difference. But according to the authors, not everyone is looking at the right data. “Many school districts are in the dark because they don’t look at the right numbers. They look at average, school-wide attendance data, and they look at truancy, not the full range of excused and unexcused absences. Thus, they don’t know how many students are missing 10 percent of the school year, or in other words, how many students are chronically absent. Even a school with 95 percent average daily attendance can have 15 to 20 percent of its students registering high levels of absenteeism.”

Apparently Baltimore was uniquely positioned to focus on this issue in part because the state of Maryland was keeping the right kind of statistics, looking at the number of students who were chronically absent. Also, researchers at Johns Hopkins were doing work in the area of chronic absenteeism.

“Chronic absence is a problem we can fix,” note the authors, “if we look at the right data and start early enough. Schools and communities are seeing attendance rates improve within months when they  monitor chronic absence data, identify barriers to attendance, and reach out to children and families help them overcome barriers to getting to school. People everywhere understand the value of school attendance, which makes it easy for city leaders to rally support for their campaigns.”

The 2012 All-America City Awards will recognize communities that have developed the most comprehensive, realistic and sustainable plans to increase grade-level reading proficiency by the end of third grade by focusing on three areas that have real potential to drive improvements in grade-level reading: school readiness, school attendance, and summer learning. To sign a letter of intent for your community to apply for the award, link here.

Mike McGrath is senior editor and chief information officer for the National Civic League. A former newspaper reporter and magazine writer, he is editor of the quarterly National Civic Review, which will be beginning its centennial year of publishing this spring.

Mike’s posts will appear every Thursday on the State of the Re:Union website.

In preparation for SOTRU’s new season beginning September 16th, we offer you a sneak peek of a featured city you can look forward to learning more about. This week’s School Spotlight will focus on on two New York City public schools in the Bronx, recently recognized by the NYC Department of Education and the NYC Service initiative during their first annual “Service in School” awards.

These public city schools have refused to tarry at the threshold of a predictable fate confined to mediocrity.  Students are stepping outside of comfort zones (yes, sometimes that “step” is more of a “push” from faculty who believe and dream bigger than expected by students.), taking  back control of their neighborhood with service to the community. They are being recognized for one of two service award categories:

• Excellence in Service, which acknowledges exceptional service programs demonstrating significant student engagement and initiative, community partnerships, and sustainability.
• Remarkable Growth in Service, which recognizes new school service programs that have significantly impacted its community during its first or second year in operation.

Excellence in Service Winners

P.S. 132 Garret A. Morgan completes a series of community-based service projects. Students are able to witness the direct impact of their community service efforts through projects like school beautification on Earth Day and a grassroots campaign to raise asthma awareness among parents. They also engage service partnerships with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Remarkable Growth in Service

Bronx Early College Academy for Teaching
and Learning

Two afterschool clubs at the Bronx Early College Academy for Teaching and Learning give students an opportunity to improve their community. The “Community Service Club” and “No Place For Hate: the Anti-bias Club” have generated partnerships with community organizations like City Harvest, the Anti-Defamation League, the LGBT Community Center, and an orphanage in Uganda.

The Mission for Service in Schools: Strive to expand the number of NYC students engaged in transformative community service and service-learning experiences that enable them to use their voice, skills, and critical thinking to affect positive change in their communities and the world.

These are just two of the schools in New York City participating in the Service in Schools program. There are many more students who are rising to the call and rallying for the betterment of their community through actions of service. To find out more about the program and additional schools awarded, click here.

Through the Service in Schools program,  they are taking control of their futures, for both children and community. Young men and women are learning firsthand how being a responsible and caring steward of their neighborhoods can influence lives. They are rising above and wiping away the less-than-stellar stigma associated with this borough. Small steps pave the way to hope, and these small steps will affect a change raising the bar that was set too low in past years. These Bronx youths are now being held to higher standards, creating an understanding of just how capable of they are achieving extraordinary goals.