Project MARCH is working with seven Project POWER/AmeriCorps members this year! The members serving with Project MARCH facilitate after-school Learning Centers in three Asheville neighborhoods: PVA, Deaverview and Woodridge.  The seven members with Project MARCH all work in the local schools that their students attend, helping to bridge the gap between schools, neighborhoods and families!

The YMCA of Western North Carolina has six Project POWER/AmeriCorps members working with elementary and middle school youth throughout the Asheville and Buncombe County area.  These members will facilitate homework time, demonstrate positive relationships and mentor students throughout the school year and into summer camp!

Off South French Broad, the YWCA of Asheville, received five Project POWER/AmeriCorps members.  This year there is a bit of change at the YWCA, with an added position and new leadership (the new Director of FutureVision is a past Project POWER/AmeriCorps member)!  Project POWER/AmeriCorps members will be staffing the FutureVision Middle and High School Programs, like last year.  The Volunteer Coordinator is another stellar Project POWER/AmeriCorps member.  And the happy new addition is a Garden and Physical Activities Coordinator, highlighting the fun ways we can get students moving, eating healthy and on the path to a healthy lifestyle!

The UNCA Key Center welcomed back their member from last year.  Once again Project POWER/AmeriCorps will have a hand in spreading the good news of service learning around campus, while linking students to volunteer opportunities within our community!

At Asheville Middle School, the In Real Life program is hosting a past Project POWER/AmeriCorps member as their Volunteer Coordinator and a current Project POWER/AmeriCorps member to facilitate real life experiences for middle school students!

Last, but certainly not least, are the full day positions at local schools.  We have two full-time Garden and Volunteer Coordinators working at Vance Elementary and Hall Fletcher Elementary in West Asheville.  Both of these members have bright faces, interested minds, loads of dirt and great communities to create vegetables, flowers and volunteer-based school support groups from.  At ArtSpace Charter School we have three full-time Project POWER/AmeriCorps members providing direct support in the classroom, organizing a lovely school garden, involving the community in creative ways and organizing the overwhelming love of the parent-volunteers.

On Friday they participated in their first group service project.  The team gathered at William Randolph School for an afternoon of service and team bonding.  Fletcher Comer and Eric Howard, school administrators, gathered the team together, outlined the various volunteer projects and set the team free to get busy!

Groups created inspirational bulletin boards.  Quotes from Emerson, Ali and Jay Z will greet students tomorrow morning on their first day, demonstrating positive attitudes and the love our community has for these young men and women.

Other groups helped to clean-up the greenhouse, weed the front beds, remove large old furniture and spruce up the cafeteria.  By the end of the afternoon the group was tired and William Randolph School was sparkling.

“Because your heart is so beautiful, everything looks beautiful to you.” Japanese proverb

Asheville, get ready for another beautiful year, full of service, love and community building!

The next three weeks will be dedicated to building a cohesive and knowledgable team. Trainings ranging from behavior management to workshops focusing on literacy skills and the still new math curriculum will be occurring around town.  New members will also be meeting members in the community that will help them along their journey and completing a service project at William Randolph School.  After this, members will begin the real work at their schools and                                                               after-school sites.

Keep your eyes open, there are big hopes for the year!

]]> http://cfcisprojectpoweramericorps.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/new-team-new-year/feed/ 0 cfcisprojectpoweramericorps 100_3628 http://cfcisprojectpoweramericorps.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/project-poweramericorps-graduation/ http://cfcisprojectpoweramericorps.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/project-poweramericorps-graduation/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:04:38 +0000 cfcisprojectpoweramericorps http://cfcisprojectpoweramericorps.wordpress.com/?p=792 Continue reading →]]> The Project POWER/AmeriCorps team graduated last night.  It was an amazing night, full of reflection and hope.

The past year has been incredible, our team has reached out to serve the youth and families of Asheville and Buncombe County, and along the way we have changed and grown as much as the little and big ones, the families and neighborhoods we served.   We have gotten to go through the growing pains of EOGs and the fun screams of recess, we have made summer an exciting time where adventure and exploration are hallmarks, we have matched students and mentors to build lasting and positive relationships and we have most of all made our community stronger through daily acts of warmth and kindness.

Hats off to Team 13!

The cooking team has been working hard in the various back kitchens of the Grove Park Inn to perfect their technique and timing.  As Chef Trantham says, “it is all about ‘mise en place’ -getting everything to its place in the kitchen, both physically and mentally.”

Tara, our Project POWER/AmeriCorps member on the cooking team, has been helping to mentally prepare the student representative.  Together they have made note cards, practiced vegetable identification (kale and parsley can be a bit tricky) and gone over every question they think a judge or the First Lady might ask.

Sarah Cain, the principal at Ira B. Jones, and Susan Bowers, the Child Nutrition Specialist, have been guiding the project all along, providing an endless source of encouragement to our student representative and lots of love during the practice phase!

Hats off to Ira B. Jones and the Grove Park Inn!  It is great to live in a community where the welfare, health and happiness of children is being championed!

Nicole, our Project POWER/AmeriCorps member serving at Vance Elementary, has incorporated summer school curriculum into the garden.  Students are coming out and working one projects designed around literacy, math and science.

The 5th grade class out and about this past week, were interested in catching bugs and building terrariums.  As groups explored and worked on tools to capture little creatures, questions and observations came blurting out at record speed.  Over the course of the lesson students journaled their findings, explored the different areas of the garden and discussed how they housed different bugs, they ended with wonderful microcosm of the garden to take back to the class for further study.

As the Vance Peace Garden becomes further incorporated into the school curriculum it provides amazing opportunities for academic enrichment, alternative learning experiences and moments of growth and diversity.

So, get out and check out your local gardens!  Encourage your community to invest in sustainable teaching tools that encourage skill development, nourish the community and enhance the lives of those who are willing to give a little sweat and gain some dirty hands-on experience.

Over the course of camp the group worked to create a new take on William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors.  This new take took the play to the planet of Alderaan and included such characters as Dr. Pinch/Poke, Duke Solinus of Alderaan, Jabba Angelo (a goldsmith), alien translators and Amelia the Jedi priestess.

Creativity flowed.  From slight changes in lines to accommodate the adopted setting of space to costumes reminiscent of space-aged freedom fighters with a flair of 80s fashion; student input, excitement and involvement was obvious.

Since much is still a mystery about cave art, its creators and its specific social, political or religious goals; students were able to freely imagine and place themselves in the minds of people who lived over 30,000 years ago.  Their observations were beautiful.  They thought maybe the art was created for beauty alone, one student mentioned that it might be to tell a story or communicate a bigger idea without words, others noted that it might have been made for people in the future.

Once observations and discussions were wrapped up, the IHAD students began working in groups to create art inspired by the pre-historic cave pieces they worked with.  Ms. Nureena handed out long sheets of brown, slightly crumpled paper to represent cave walls.  She also doled out crayons, pastels and charcoal.  Students worked together and independently, much like the artists they studied, to create symbols and images that represented their lives, hopes, neighborhoods, families and faith-based practices.

Check out the amazing slide show, enjoy the art they created and the art they observed for inspiration!

Over the past couple of months, she and the Director of the Key Center, have worked hard to first excite the faculty of UNCA about Service Learning and then pass a motion through the faculty senate that would distinguish these courses within the course guide as Service Learning specific, with a set of standards and best practices to be followed.  Also this spring, they have initiated and passed a type of honor; students can apply to and work toward being a ‘Community Engaged Scholar’.

The standards for a course to be designated as a Service Learning course are as follows: the course work must centrally feature service learning, at least 25% of the course grade must be contingent on a service learning project, the class should partner with a local agency, students will be instructed on aspects of service learning, at least 5 hours of community service will be required for each hour of credit with ongoing reflections with pre, mid and post evaluations.

Recently, Cori completed training seminars with faculty.  She researched and presented on best practice standards in Service Learning and how to integrate these within the classroom and with the standards set and passed by the faculty.

Along the side are some of the best practice tips she shared with the UNCA faculty, enjoy. Just click on the picture for a full-sized image!

To play Knee Ball you need between 15 and 25 minutes of free time or time to kill.  Two buckets, three if you have three teams.  Squishy balls of any kind.  Any number of summer campers, students and staff.  The main objective is to create an atmosphere of competition that fosters team work and encouragement!

Begin by splitting your group of campers/students into two teams.  Have the teams line up, single file, and place a bucket about 20 to 30 feet away.

Once teams are split it is instruction and demonstration time.  Explain that this is a relay race, with everyone taking a turn and speed being of the utmost importance. Demonstrate the two tasks each student will need to complete.  The first, is placing the squishy ball between their knees and hopping or moving in any way toward the bucket, where they drop the ball inside before they can run it back to the next camper.  After all the campers have completed this phase of the relay, they need to shift their style from knees to the CRAB-WALK!  Campers place the squishy ball between their chin and neck and race, crab style, to the bucket, where they will flip, drop and then return the ball to their teammates. The first team to complete both rounds wins!

Let the games begin!