L.E.A.D. (Leadership Exploration Academic Development)

Being an program officer for L.E.A.D at my own high school Phillip and Sala Burton High is amazing! I get to experience firsthand how the mentor's and mentee's interact with each other. L.E.A.D is a club developed by students in my school to help the different age groups come together and learned from one another. The juniors and seniors are the mentors helping the sophomores and freshmen to better understand both the high school and college process. To help better the team bond and leadership skills, L.E.A.D fundraises money to help its students go on environmental trips outside San Francisco and have different types of experiences than their peers.   

While in the L.E.A.D meeting last Thursday I was given insight into how much perpetration and participation it takes on both the youth leader’s side and the participants side to make everything happen, both groups of youth where very interactive with each other in planning their upcoming trips such as hiking and camping. Feedback was given to the youth leaders to help better their next trip. It was amazing to see how far L.E.A.D had come since the beginning of the year and knowing that my friends helped it come this far made the joy I felt for them even sweeter.        

WORKATHON ALL day ALL the time PLEASE!

On March 30, 2013, tens of high school students from all over San Francisco, attended the 17th Annual Workathon held in the Chinatown community by Chinatown Community Development Center. Students from Galileo, Washington, Lincoln, and even students from organizations such as Adopt An Alleyway, gathered together to make an impactful change on this day. Workathon is all about promoting environmental change and about breaking perceptions. Once percieved as a community that wasn't environmentally friendly, youth in around San Francisco, fought to make an environmental change for not only the lives of those in the community but also those in San Francisco. During Workathon, teams were created, and youth went around the community CLEANING UP. Some groups went around to clean the alleyways by picking up some of hte litter on the ground/ Some groups went around to repaint walls that had graffitti on them, and some groups went to paint a mural. WIth all these youth gathering together, many adults were inspired by their acts. Storefront managers were encouraging kids to continue their work and even asked a couple of them to paint a couple other walls that had graffitti. In addition to repainting walls, a mural was created in which it would be put on a wall in Chinatown to show Chinatown as a community that is environmentally friendly. Hands showed the way to the community that was clean in both the streets and alleyways. This was a vision for youth in Chinatown, and on March 30th, that vision came to LIFE. Being a part of Workathon for the first time was truly inspiring for me. To see so many youth from different communities gather together to make a better change was empowering, and since this is an annual event, YOU should come the next Workathon!

Below are some pictures and videos that I have attached for everyone to experience the BEAUTY of WORKATHON!

Pictures:

With that in mind, if you want to help create change in the Chinatown Community especially environmental help, please come to CLEAN-UP hosted by Adopt-An-Alleyway, a youthled group that is a part of Chinatown Community Development Center. Almost every month, on the first Saturday, they have CLEAN-UP Saturday in which they go around this community to promote environmental wellness. To find out when the next CLEAN-UP is, keep checking our blogs please!

Summer Opportunities Fair

John O' Connell presents:

SUMMER OPPORTUNITIES FAIR

Are you looking for a job or internship this summer? Looking for experience in the work field for future job or career opportunities? Then head on down to John O' Connell High School this Thursday for the upcoming fair for jobs & internships that will be available this coming summer & even class enrollment while living on a college campus! This isn't only a great opportunity to apply for these amazing choices, but a chance to meet new people! Organizations that will be present include: Conscious Youth Media Crew (CYMC), Youth Works, Summer Jobs, & many more!

When: Thursday, April 18th, 2013

Where: John O' Connell High School, 2355 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA

Location in building: The Atrium

Time: After-School 2:30pm-4:30pm

OPPORTUNITIES: CHINATOWN URBAN INSTITUTE

Are you interested in being an empowered leader in beautiful San Francisco? Do you wish to take action against injustices? An opportunity has appeared! The Chinese Community Development Center is now accepting applications for YOU to be a part of Chinatown Urban Institute, but wait a minute.. WHAT IS CHINATOWN URBAN INSTITUTE? The Chinatown Urban Institute is a community engagement and learning program facilitated by CCDC. The mission of the this program is to educate and empower San Francisco's emerging youth leaders ages 18-24 to understand and take action on community- based urban planning issues, using San Francisco's Chinatown as a "studio". Through an inquiry-based approach, 12 fellows will learn the history of Chinatown and skills core to community planning as a tool for social justice and advocacy. Sessions include seminars, walking tours and interactive fieldwork components to give the participants hand-on experience in grassroots community planning.

Some requirements and information about what it would mean to be a part of the Chinatown Urban Insitute are the following:

1. This is an 8-week program that runs from June 18-August 9,2013
2. Fellows are expected to commit 20 hours per week including sessions, projects, readings, and participation in the Chinatown community.
3. After the summer program, fellows are expected to continue their engagement with the Chinatown community through 10 hours of community servce after which they will recieve a $500 STIPEND for their participation.

So, what are YOU waiting for? Hurry and apply for the Chinatown Urban Institute! The deadline to turn in your application is April 26,2013. Please go to http://chinatownurbaninstitute.weebly.com/ for the application.

TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY, AND MAKE A CHANGE! BE ONE OF THEM!

That's Not Love Talent Show Site Visit

On March 31st, of 2013, I visited one of our grantee's, That's Not Love Talent Show. The goal of their program is to educate San Francisco about domestic violence. They hope to show this through a talent show and a play. The talent show will be held on June 21st, and the play will be held on July 13th. As I came in, I was welcomed by their whole group where we all introduced ourselves! We than carried on into their activities where I observed how they ran their meetings

Overall I was excited about how their project was turning out and was pleased with the progress that was made! They made their meetings exciting by playing a game called Chubby Bunny due to the holiday of Easter. Exciting as it was, they were very focused with their work.Throughout this visit, I observed them working on and discussing their outreach, and practicing their play which was very interesting! Come to their events on the dates mentioned above! More details will be available as they come. I am very excited to visit them again and had a very pleasant first site visit.

It's time to get our WORKathon on!!!

It's time for change and this change starts with YOU! This Saturday, March 30, 2013, join Adopt An Alleyway in its work to help clean the Chinatown community! This Saturday, from 9AM-1PM, youth will gather together to clean the alleyways, and repaint the walls that once had graffitti on them.You will get to experience not only what it is like to live in this community, but also become aware of its needs. On this day, you will be able to create murals and simply help out the community by doing simple deeds such as cleaning the alleyways so that plastic cups and plastic bags aren't everywhere. To promote the wellness of the community and to bring youth together, Workathon works to create environmental change! SO COME OUT TO NOT ONLY HAVE FUN, BUT TO BE A PART OF THIS ACT OF CHANGE! To volunteer, contact Wendy Chen at wchen@chinatowncdc.org

Feedback Circle

Last week, YEFAB took part in a very meaningful activity that really helped all of us as members grow. Our YEFAB group have been working together now since August 2012, and we believed that it was time for us to reflect on what we have done in the months that we have been together. We have given our best efforts to get the best results in our community, and we wanted to know how we have contributed to our community and how we can grow, as both team members and as individuals. So, in doing so, each member went around and gave each team member a compliment for what they have done fabulously, and what they could improve on. This construct would then help remind us that while we have many strengths that make us very productive and special in our own way, there are ways that we can shape those strengths and make room for improvement. We each got a chance to write down our thoughts and gave each member a little goodie bag to take come, with all our posted notes we have written for each of us to contemplate on. With the feedback circle, we are able to move on with more progress, because we now have the tools to do better, and to be better.