Hope Summer Program is underway!

The HOPE Summer Program provides summer academic support for teens in the Ypsilanti area while giving them the opportunity to learn from each other and to broaden their horizons as learners. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the group meets for two hours to work on critical reading, writing, and math. They analyze news articles, craft responses and other writing assignments, and bolster their core academic subjects while supplementing them with activities, like poetry writing, designed to help them enjoy using critical and creative thinking. On Thursdays, students and instructors take field trips, often to local schools, colleges and universities, to learn about the diversity of educational opportunities available in the area.

As an incentive to stick with the program and as a way to make it financially accessible, teens are compensated for their attendance after agreeing to attend for the full month of the program. This commitment is part of what ensures teens leave the program having taken full advantage of the support it offers them. Knowledge is power, and the HOPE Summer Program gives teens access to knowledge they need to navigate school successfully and make empowered decisions about their own educational paths.

Please consider making a donation to support the HOPE Summer Program. Go to the donate page at www.dedicatedtomakeachange.com to make a Paypal donation and help teens grow as whole learners this summer.

In the coming days, we're looking forward to posting bios from the teens and the instructors, as well as featured work produced during the program. Follow us here to stay updated!

We're Moving

Dedicated to Make a Change is moving to a new blog. The address is changebringshope.com.This blog will still be available for you to read, but I will no longer be updating it. Please subscribe to the new blog to get all our updates.

Prevent and Prevail has funding!

Last Monday Max, Gail, and I made presentation to Robby, the diversity committee co-chair for the Zingerman's community of businesses to ask for money to fund Prevent and Prevail. To make a long story short: Zingerman's is giving Dedicated to Make a Change $3000.

Prevent and Prevail  is a group for youth ages 11-19 to discuss topics including HIV, other STDs, sex, relationships, and drugs in a positive and healthy atmosphere. We will be running the program for two sessions during the 2013-2014 school year. Each session will consist of three discussions, each 2 hours long. Everyone involved will be paid, including the participants. Participants will be paid 5 dollars an evening as motivation for youth to come to the meeting with idea being that youth might come for the money, but will also walk away with the knowledge to protect themselves and their partners. There will also be paid facilitator positions for older teens who want to lead the discussions. Follow this blog and the Dedicated to Make a Change Facebook page to stay up to date on everything Prevent and Prevail.

Receiving the funding for Prevent and Prevail is a big step for Dedicated to Make a Change. Thank you Zingerman's!

Celebration and Movie Night

Dedicated to Make a Change hosted another movie night last night. 

Dominick waiting for the movie to start.

About 12 people came to watch Thor and Malibu's Most Wanted. The movie night was a success, but it was clearly overshadowed by the other events in Braun Court. 

Yesterday The US Supreme Court ruled that proposition 8 and a part of DOMA(defense of marriage act) are unconstitutional. This means that same sex couples can now legally get married in California, and that all married couples will be subject to the same federal laws and benefits. This infographic explains the specifics better. As you can imagine, this is a big deal for TBLGQ people and their supporters.  Everyone in Braun Court was smiling. It was impossible not to.

Even the baby is happy.

Dancing went on for hours.

Gail Wolkoff, the owner of Dedicated to Make a Change, was quoted in this article on annarbor.com . She said, “This gives hope to people just starting relationships — they can fall in love and love one another and be valid. This can make a huge difference in people’s lives. Probably more than anything — the idea that love is valid.”

We are Going to Costa Rica

Dedicated to Make a Change is now planning to expand our service trips to Costa Rica. Max has been trying to convince us that we need to go hang out in the sloth sanctuary. Below is the video that finally convinced us that we need to go.

We are still in the very beginning phases, but we are planning to carry baby turtles, baby sloths, and baby humans. The trip will probably happen sometime next year. Subscribe to this blog to stay up to date on all of Dedicated to Make a Change's service trips.

Movie Night #1 Was a Success

Last night was the first of the Dedicated to Make a Change summer movie nights.

Dev was the lead youth coordinator for the event. She worked hard organizing and selling the snacks for the night. Excellent job Dev!

18 wonderful people came to the Jim Toy Center to watch movies, eat ice cream, and have a great time. We watched Zombieland and the Incredibles.

We will be having a movie night on the second Wednesday of the month in July and August. Our next movie night is July 10th. We will be watching Footloose 1 and Despicable Me. Anyone age 12 to 18 is welcome to come.

Our radio show was awesome!

On Tuesday I was on the radio show Reality Strikes along with Carlos, Mia, Debrieana, Chloe, Angela, and Gail. Everyone had a chance to speak and overall the show went very well. I met some cool people(and a cool dog). The hosts Eric Brown and Stuart Boswell seemed  impressed and said they would like to make our appearance on the show a regular thing. Reality Strikes is every first and third Tuesday of the month from 7 to 9. You can hear it at katsentertainment.com. Follow this blog to see when we might be on air next and to stay up to date with all the other great things we are doing!

TONIGHT, JUNE 4, from 7-9 pm.

Dear Friends~ 

'Reality Strikes' on KATS Radio that is streamed online viawww.katsentertainment.com tonight, Tuesday, from 7PM - 9PM.
You will hear Allison Melcher, Mia Royster, Debrieana Jackson, Chloe Gurin-Sands, Angela Stanley, Carlos Carthage and Gail Wolkoff interviewed.
The work these everyday youth are doing, with Dedicated to Make a Change, is the type of program that people need to be aware of and hopefully become involved with.

Zander planting  lettuce with Suleiman and Adam Isack. The Isack family, now lives in Grand Rapids,  they are from Darfur.   

Creating a Safe Space

On Wednesday I attended a youth empowerment summit at Washtenaw Community College. The summit was organized by WATT and TCW2.  Dedicated to Make a Change hosted a workshop entitled Creating a Safe Space.  The workshop was open to both youth and adults, but only 3 adults showed up, making it clear that many youth are looking for a safe space but few adults are looking to create one. During Dedicated to Make a Change's workshop we discussed what constitutes a  safe space, who makes you feel safe, and what you wish adults knew about creating a safe space.

One of the activities was that the youth were asked to write down one thing that would help them feel safe. Here are some of their responses:

• Don't judge me based on my looks.
• Don't just use stereotypes.
• Always be there for me.
• Privacy is important. Respect boundaries.
• Have food. (multiple people said this one)
• Take off your "adult hat". Don't act like you are better than me.
• Follow through with your promises. Be trustworthy.
• Have materials available for a variety of learning styles.
• Remember that a safe space can have different meanings to different people.
• Create a place where I can share my true self. 

The adults were asked to write down something they would keep in mind when they were trying to create a safe space. Here is what they said:

• working with young people to develop safety rules for the group that everyone agrees on
• know that "safe" has different meanings for different people
• at the beginning of our time together ask the youth I work how to make a safe space for them

At the end of the workshop all the participants were asked to give a rating of the workshop by putting their thumbs up, sideways, or down. 97% of the participants put there thumbs up, so I'd call the workshop a success.

Summer Movies and a Safe Space

Dedicated to Make a Change will be hosting movie nights on the second Wednesday of the month throughout the summer as a fundraiser. The movie is free. We will be selling snacks and drinks.

You could have as much fun as these people.

 The first movie will be June 12th at the Jim Toy Community Center. The Jim Toy Community Center is located near Kerry Town at 319 Braun Court in Ann Arbor. All youth are invited. As always, this will be a safe space for all so feel free to come see a movie and hang out with your friends!

Youth and the NOLA Community

A group of 7 youth recently went to New Orleans, Louisiana for a 12 days of community service. We did lots of physical work including painting, restoring wetlands, removing invasive species from nature trails, organizing a library, moving lots of chairs to make room for a screen printing workshop, cutting a lawn, and cleaning a church, among other things.

 Michael, Lizzie, and Nils are planting in the wetlands.

However, I would say that about 50% of our difference is made just by being there, just by showing that people haven't forgotten about New Orleans, by showing that we still care, and by showing that teenagers can be helpful and thoughtful. Interacting with the community is what Dedicated to Make a Change is about. One of the things that makes service trips with Dedicated to Make a Change different is that we try to immerse ourselves in the community and do what they really need instead of coming in with a plan and forcing the community to fit our ideal.
One of the main people Dedicated to Make a Change has worked with over the years is Ward "Mack" McClendon, the owner and founder of the Lower Ninth Ward Village. The Lower Ninth Ward is a nonprofit organization and community center. When we arrive at the center we do not come with a specific vision, we ask Mack what he needs done and then we make it happen. Mack is famous for his tours and his reflections. Every time we work with Mack, he leads a reflection where we discuss what we have learned.

Mack leading one of his tours.

 Mack, Max, and Nils are looking thoughtful after a reflection with the group.

 We also worked with Augie at Wesley United. Augie is basically the unofficial caretaker of Wesley United.

Looking at the church.

Us chilling with Augie.

Augie said the best thing we could do for the church was to make it look nice on the outside. We raked leaves and picked up trash. We also bought some vegetable plants and brought them to Augie. He planted them in front of the church as a community garden.

Here is one of the beautiful flowers that Augie was caring for at Wesley United.

Another wonderful person I have had the chance of meeting in New Orleans is Smitty. Smitty is the author of a book about the 7 days after Katrina called Exiled in Paradise.He is also a great storyteller and he loves to make you think about things in new ways. We noticed that his yard was very long and asked if he would like it cut. If your lawn is over 6 inches high in New Orleans, you can be fined. Of course he said yes and we got right to work, with him telling stories and interrogating us about our beliefs all the while.

Me "golfing" in the long grass. We had to use swing blades to cut the lawn.

Lizzie working and talking with Smitty.

While we were working at Smitty's house a lady drove by and and thought it was nice that we were helping out so she gave us a box of macaroons. Nice little things like that happen to us all the time in New Orleans. Another person who showed us kindness was Darren. He works at the Lower Ninth Ward Village and when he heard we needed swing blades and a mower for Smitty's lawn, he gladly volunteered. Darren was great because he was very generous with his time and seemed to love talking to us about his work. He also came with us to Jazz Fest.

Here is Darren mowing the lawn with a lawn mower that he basically made from scratch.

While we were working at Smitty's house, the owner of the house next to his saw us and asked us to cut her lawn too. Of course we did and she invited us over to her house for a traditional New Orleans dinner. Allison also shared with us her experience of the hurricane. Her whole family was kind to us and let us see some photos they had salvaged from their house after the flood.

Here we are with Smitty and Darren.

Working with the community is a mutual relationship. When people realize you are there to help they are quick to tell their stories, show you around, make you a meal, and give you macaroons or tickets to Jazz Fest. Change brings hope and hope brings change. By giving the community hope and showing that people care enough to help, we really can make a difference.

FLO, FLEXIBILITY, AND REV

Dear Participants and Parents~ 

Happy Second day of Spring.  

Mack, at the Lower 9th Ward Village, he shared it is not snowing there.  Those of us, leaving next week, will soon be snow free.

There has been a minor change in our plans.  Those of us who are experienced doing service work with Dedicated to Make a Change have met "Flo."  "Flo" travels with us.  'Flo" constantly reminds us to be ready for anything and everything.  'Flo" offers amazing experiences and opportunities.  “Flo” has a twin by the name of “Flexibility.”

I was contacted by United Saints, yesterday.  It turns out, a new policy is in place.  The change removes meals, when less than 20 people stay at United Saints.   

Due to this change, both trips Flowed to plan B.  Participants on the New Orleans Service Learning Experience are staying in the Lower 9th Ward Village.  The sleeping accommodations, at the Village, are similar to United Saints. Breakfast and lunch remain the same.  Dinners will be made by us and members of the community. 

We are  visiting, breaking bread, relaxing, and working in the same community.  

I am excited.  

I am confident we will be safe and secure.   

Youth Center in Ypsilanti

Dear Community,

As with many areas in the nation, Ypsilanti, Michigan’s economy has been hit hard. On the most recent census, 26.4% live below the poverty line and three out of four students earn a high school diploma on time.  February 1, 2013, Michigan Public Radio broadcasted a report stating the drop-out rate has increased in Washtenaw County.   Youth, in our community, identified a need for a youth community center.  Dedicated to Make a Change, L3C agrees.  We emphasize experiential learning and challenging work; engaging youth in service driven by their passions.  Providing a youth center gives us a place to do the front end work to address and obliterate problems amongst youth such as bullying, suicide, violence, substance abuse and dependence and school dropouts.  

In the center of Ypsilanti, I found an office building with an attached warehouse.  It is a perfect place.   There is space for partnering with other area youth organizations.  There is space for youth to develop their physical, social, emotional, and cognitive abilities; experiencing learning, achievement, leadership, enjoyment and friendship.  The asking price is $90,000.  I am working with my real-estate agent to develop agreeable terms.  

I am seeking funds to defray the cost of the building and the operations.  The funds received will go to the purchase, insurance, and upkeep of the building.  I am requesting any assistance that you are willing to give, whether it is monetary support, publicity of a new center in Ypsilanti, or a donation of furniture, carpets, and/or kitchen appliances.  You can contact me at the phone number or email address listed below.

To find out more about our all inclusive youth organization or to make a donation, visit our website: www. dedicatedtomakeachange.com.

Thank you for your generosity!  

Gail Wolkoff

Executive Director 

Dedicated to Make a Change, L3C

www.dedicatedtomakeachange.com

734 218 2953

Being Kind

Everyone heading back to school and/or work today~ Be kind to yourself.  Just being there is a great accomplishment.  Visit, talk, share, eat cookies, and smile~ There will be more time to engage tomorrow.