Reflection Paper On Community Engagement

As a new charter school located in a vibrant neighborhood in Wilmington, our school has worked directly with neighbors, community groups, local nonprofit organizations and local elected and government leaders to establish a good relationship and prepare the way for our students and families to benefit from our neighborhood and location. The Brandywine neighborhood where our school is located is in the center of downtown Wilmington, easily accessible to many local businesses and government agencies, and area neighborhoods, by foot and by public transportation. We have worked extensively with local community groups, agencies and organizations to ensure that the relationship between our school and the community is mutually beneficial. When

Last May, I traveled with Alternative Breaks to New York for community service. During this service, I worked with Meals on Wheels who dedicate their time to provide food for the elderly of Manhattan. As I delivered the food to the seniors, I got a sense of fulfillment because I made them smile by providing them with food. Thus, I chose MDC’s Single Stop because I wanted to make a difference in my home campus by providing and assuring nourishment to those that do not have it just like I did in New York. As my first two years of college comes to an end, I wanted to leave a mark of my own here at home at Miami Dade College North Campus. During the month of September, I decided to partner up with a few of my peers to serve at MDC’s Single Stop.

“It’s more about providing a safe place for these kids and the community, volunteers provide meals and show love which many lack,” Terry Clark said.

Assisted young children between the grades of preschool to 8th grade in their education. I decided to volunteer because the children of today will be the children of the future and the more smart and educated they are the better they will be in the future. Another reason I helped was because it is hard for young children to adapt to the lifestyle of constantly moving from one place to another. Since their parents are migrants it can have a negative impact on them and their education. I remember one little girl is from Florida but every summer her parents move up to Michigan to work in the fields, but once the harvest is over they move back to Florida. She was behind in school and with the help of teachers and myself we motivated and helped her out so she was able to catch up. I really enjoyed volunteering the past two summers ago at the summer migrant program. If I had another opportunity to help I

The community organization my group chose to research in Champaign County was the Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club. I will begin with a description of the Don Moyer Boys & Girls Club including the history of the organization as well as the activities that take place at the club. I will then talk about the role that that Don Moyer plays in the Champaign-Urbana community that was learned through an interview with Ray Pratt who is current Director of Finance at Don Moyer. Being that I am familiar with the Boys & Girls Club organizations both in Champaign and Chicago, I will share how I have connected with the organizations within the past few years. Being that the organization was founded to improve certain communities, I will explain how the activities

The first organization that was brought to my attention is Al’s Pals. I love the impact you can make on children's lives. It doesn’t matter if you are a mentor or helping them with their work, you will be that positive impact and influence in that child's life. All I have ever wanted to do is to be a positive influence and impact the lives of children. I hope that I get the opportunity to join Al’s Pals and have an impact on the Tuscaloosa community.

I volunteered at the Little Lights Urban Ministries. I had the pleasure of working with adults and kids but, majority were adults in a low income community. Little lights was founded in 1995 by Steven Park. Little Lights is located in Potomac Gardens public housing apartments in Washington DC. It all started off with Steven tutoring one child in an uptown neighborhood. Then he met his wife Mary and things started expanded. They started allowing 15 kids come over after school to do homework and bible study. Sometimes they would order pizza or buy chicken to feed the kids if they stayed over late. A couple of years later they was blessed with the main building and somebody donated a van for transportation. Steven then start his nonprofit and

After searching for hours over the internet and sending many emails, I chose the Washington United Youth Center (WUYC) to volunteer at . It was simply perfect; there were many eager students at the school, located in a poor area, waiting for help. It pleased me to see many students

The Parent Involvement goal states that by June 2017 they want to increase parent involvement at school-sponsored events from 42% to 67% participation. This plan was created after assessing the 2015-2016 ODR(Office Discipline Referral) composite and there was disproportionality in 4 students’ referral and suspension rates that had increased since the previous year. The assistant principal reports the ODR of the school at each School Improvement Team (SIT) meeting. Covington Street wants to encourage a family feel and it is reflective in their vision and mission statements. The vision of Covington Street Elementary School is to be a family that prepares the whole child to be a caring, lifelong learner who adapts to a changing world. Their mission is to make students into the best students and people that they can. The mission at Covington Street Elementary School is to produce lifelong learners by challenging all children to reach their fullest potential and become caring, responsible, independent

Project Learning Tree provides professional development for teachers on how to engage children in indoor/outdoor environmental experiences. The parents had the opportunity to speak to a representative of Project Learning Tree and learn more about the curriculum and teacher training opportunities. Sodexo is a food service company that provides breakfast and lunch for Van Ness and the majority of DC Public Schools. Sodexo provided information pertaining to the breakfast and lunch menu, and offered tasty healthy recipes. I thought the healthy recipes was very important information because Van Ness prides its self on being a healthy school and only providing healthy

As a campus, it is up to us to expose out students to more and to inspire them to do more. So, it is in our best interest to partner with our surrounding community leaders. We are within the ideal area; there are major churches such as Antioch, Concord, Friendship West, and Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. Along with the churches, there is Youth World that serves as an aid to at-risk children. Another bonus is the fact that the high school a majority of our students will graduate from is right up the street.

The Junior Civitans Club is a community service organization that I have been a member of throughout my high school career. I participated in three Relay for Life walks for life, and helped to raise hundreds of dollars for the Relay for Life cancer research campaign. In my Sophomore and Junior years, I was elected to be on the Leadership committee as a Representative and later a Secretary. This year, I was elected President of the club and preside over all meetings and service projects. The Greenwood High School chapter of Junior Civitans “adopted” a girl’s cottage at the Connie Maxwell Children’s Home this school year. The Connie Maxwell Children’s home provides residential children’s ministry to abused, abandoned, and neglected children.

Therefore, the goal of the program is to build the Southern Kentucky Community Center in order to expand programs and a fitness area into a bigger space in 2016, beside the Lifeline Home Care in Burkesville. The facility will provide for our main programs, such as, teaching youths to be more involved within the community on a regular bases as well as providing empowerment to teens and adults who are considered at-risk, art and physical education classes, drug use counseling, education and advisement for adults on employment opportunities as well as resume building. Through offering these programs, then we can allow for residents to have unlimited access to our facility to help aid them in their future.

Although Ms. Morris rescues stray cats whenever she comes across one, she is more than just a compassionate cat lady, she is also an outdoors person. Going on runs, bike rides, and kayak rides, she is active ,not only physically, but in her community as well. Her enthusiasm to devote her time to making changes in the communities she came across, was sparked by her late father. A man who lead her to do bigger and better things to improve people’s when she had the opportunity. Leslie Morris decided to do something greater and work in schools to give a chance to all students to improve their education and lives.

LH: I love it, I’m proud of the program, and I’m honored to be a part of it. Their slogan/logo is “City of Arborly Love,” which I love, as a green person myself. All the support from Philly’s citizens the past five years has been great, I’m watching the initiative’s reach grow larger every year. I have volunteered at the community yard tree giveaways, assisting with handing out trees and leading tree care demos, not knowing that in my future role I would be working closely with TreePhilly’s Program Director Erica Smith and Program Assistant Katy Ament. I’m excited about TreePhilly’s future and proud to have a closer relationship with that program.