Family School Pride Resource Josten Pride

Helping students prepare for their future.

Commitment to Graduate

One of the morals that i learned growing up was that we are to assist when we see the need. Some define this as charity others view assisting others as part of our purpose in life. Researching for this post i came across a great company that truly exemplifies the pride and spirit in giving back to the community that they reside. Businesses small and large in our communities are great resources often untapped for the lack of reaching out to understand each others needs.

I was so happy when i found the website of Josten a company who specializes in creating memories for schools via, yearbooks, class rings ….  and have been assisting in creating these memories since 1897. I see nothing but pride in the company and the work they do for our communities. Not only do they create great jewelry they also created some awareness campaigns that help families and schools with cyberbullying, school climate, pause before you post and so many great resources to assist in building school pride.

“Build School Pride and Connect the Community”

http://www.jostens.com/educators/edu_svcs_cp_pride.html

https://www.facebook.com/JostensRenaissance/app_621532711198956?ref=ts

Jostens Renaissance

Helping school communities bring recognition to their students.

Learn more

click for resources

Dallas 6 Community Forum Philadelphia 24 Oct 2014

Violence Prevention to Stop Bullying

Parents and Community Stakeholders packed room 1075 with their concerns on the issue of bullying. We learned so much from Dr. Stephen Leff, Co-Director of the CHOP Violence Prevention Initiative and Wanda Moore. If you would like for them to come to your school please email leff@email.chop.edu or moorew@email.chop.edu or visit their website for more information, www.chop.edu/violence

• There is a difference between Conflict vs Bullying

             Conflict is a one-time incident that wasn’t pre-planned and there was an effort from both parties.

              Bullying is repeated incidents, is about dominance and damages the victim

• Defining Bullying - intentional aggressive  behavior directed at another
• Bullying affects the entire school climate, victimize 20-30% of students, and happens on the playground, lunchroom and hallways
• Three types of Bullying are Physical, Social and Cyber
• The Cyber victim are 8x more likely to carry a weapon to school

Bullying Prevention: 10 Things to know and consider

1. Understand why your youth may not confide in you
2. Recognize Warning Signs like change in eating or sleeping, headaches and stomach aches, avoiding school, declining grades, complaints about peers, complaints about peers, complaints about lunch and recess and unexplained bruises or injuries
3. Stay Calm & Be Strong Advocate For Your Youth, ask your youth about bullying, support your youth and work with the school
4. Establish Open Lines of Communication
5. Partner with the school to address concerns, set up a plan and ask questions
6. Build Your Youth’s Empathy, use feeling words, ask questions, encourage sharing and compromising, emphasize similarities with diverse peers and praise empathic comments and behaviors, Promote empathy: recognize others’ perspectives even if you do not agree with their point of view.
7. Enhance Perspective - Talking Skills, Identify teachable moments, ask questions, point out the benefits of seeing both sides of a situation
8. Promote Friendships, develop one good friendship, short, structured outings, involvement in at least one setting outside of school, enter social groups and include others in activities
9. Enhance Problem Solving Skills, pay attention to facial cues and body language, calm down strategies, evaluate others’ intentions, slow down to consider options for responding, use modeling and role playing and praise youth’s appropriate problem solving steps
10. Support Positive Bystanders by reminding your youth to: contribute to a positive environment and make safe and positive choices.

The best prevention to bullying is building relationships with your youth, their friends, teachers and administrators.

Partner for Prevention

A Bullying Prevention Program of the Violence Prevention Initiative at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

If your youth is complaining of being bullied, here are some initial recommendations:

1. Take the bullying concerns seriously, while always remaining calm and not reacting emotionally. This will help your youth be comfortable to come to you when they are having a problem.
2. Do not contact the parents of the bully or others involved in the conflict, instead use the school as a mediator to address the ussue
3. The School District of Philadelphia has a form parents can use to report bullying: http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/offices/s/student-support-services/programs-services/bullying-prevention A verbal report is also acceptable, note the importance for parents who believe their youth is being bullied or harassed to report the incident to the school and cooperate with the school’s investigation of the allegations, give concrete information: who, what, where and when of what is going on.
4. Ask your youth in what ways were they bullied or treated poorly by peers and write down their response. Some helpful questions: ** Can you describe what happened the last time you were bullied?  ** What led to the conflict? **Where did the conflict occu? **How long has this been going on? ** How have you managed the situation? ** Are school staff aware and if so how have they tried to address your concerns?
5. Contact school administrators to make sure they are aware of the problem and to work with them on developing a plan. ** setup a meeting with the schools dean or principal ** stay calm, if you cannot stay calm take a trusted friend with you, ** ask school administrators to designate a point person for your youth to talk with when having difficulties, this person should be some they can trust and respect

** Inform administrators that you do not want your youth to be viewed as a snitch or   tattle-tale, you are trusting them to use good judgement for how and when to talk with the youth involved in the ongoing conflicts.

** Jointly decide how you and the school will monitor progress

** When possible follow up with an email summarizing your conversation and your  understanding for the next steps that both the school and you are taking to address the problem

6. Parents have the right to expect the school to investigate the situation and take appropriate action, which is going to vary according to the circumstances. Some possible questions you may want to ask administrators to help support the school’s investigation: ** Who will be conducting the investigation?  ** Will there be a joint meeting with the other youth’s parents? ** How long will the investigation take? ** What is the best way to follow-up on the investigation? What should I tell my youth/have him or her do while the investigation is going on? ** How will my child and I know this has been addressed?
7. Try to set aside 5-10 minutes each night to check in with your youth about their day, establishing good communication helps prevent future problems
8. Encourage your youth to develop a set of friends who they can trust will treat them nicely, this may mean helping your child to find friends outside of the school setting that he or she feels comfortable with, if the bullying is occurring online, help your youth delete accounts, create new ones and block unfriendly peers
9. Consider having your youth talk to school counselor or psychologist about the situation to help them cope more successfully

District Attorney Seth Williams created a program last year to address bullying. Currently they are only giving workshops to fourth and fifth grade students, to have them come to your school and conduct a bullying presentation please email Jennifer.Jones@phila.gov.

Kelly Hodge Esq of the office of Safe Schools Advocate gave us books “Bullying in Schools What You Need To Know” if you would like a copy and a representative to come to your school you may contact their office 440 N. Broad Street, Suite 1198, 215.656.5381  ra-ossaPhiladelphia@pa.gov www.phillyossa.com

Bullying Hotline 215.400.7233 or 1.877.730.6315

Federal Letter to Schools on their obligations to address Bullying

http://www2.ed.gov/.../letters/colleague-bullying-201410.pdf

Bullying of Students with Disabilities Addressed in Guidance to America’s Schools As part of National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued guidance to schools reminding them that bullying is wrong and must not be tolerated – including against America’s 6.5 million students with disabilities. The Department issued guidance in the form of a letter to educators detailing public schools’ responsibilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of Americans with Disabilities Act regarding the bullying of students with disabilities. If a student with a disability is being bullied, federal law requires schools to take immediate and appropriate action to investigate the issue and, as necessary, take steps to stop the bullying and prevent it from recurring. Since 2009, OCR has received more than 2,000 complaints regarding the bullying of students with disabilities in the nation’s public elementary and secondary schools. This guidance builds upon anti-bullying guidance the Department has issues in recent years concerning schools' legal obligations to fix the problem. Help is available for those who are either targets of disability bullying or know of someone who might be, such as: A fact sheet for parents on schools’ obligations under federal law to address bullying. The fact sheet is also available in Spanish. Visiting the federal Web site, www.stopbullying.gov, which provides useful information on bullying prevention and remedies. Asking to meet with the student’s team that designs his or her individualized education program – the IEP or Section 504 teams. Asking to meet with the principal or school district’s special education coordinators to have the school address bullying concerns. Seeking help from OCR. The office investigates complaints of disability discrimination at schools. To learn more about federal civil rights laws or how to file a complaint, contact OCR at 800-421-3481 (TDD: 800-877-8339), or ocr@ed.gov. OCR’s Web site is www.ed.gov/ocr. To fill out a complaint form online, go tohttp://www.ed.gov/ocr/complaintintro.html.

Pleasant Playground Ribbon Cutting "Write Your Block" Session

Beautiful experience meeting and networking with my neighbors during Councilwoman Cindy Bass ribbon cutting ceremony. My grandson and i visited the playground while under construction and was excited when we walked to the playground this summer and was able to play with all the new structures. i recorded my oldest grandson playing in the water and climbing on the slide and jungle gym. Overwhelming response to the "Write Your Block" session. Pride was on display in so many ways and i was happy to be able to record and share our experience. 

Write Your Block Pleasant Playground was well received by the Mt. Airy Community, i had two poster boards taped to the walls so my neighbors could post a word or two about Pleasant Playground and the block they reside on. So much pride shared under the beautiful "Coordinators of Play" ceiling!! Looking forward to hosting more "Write Your Block" sessions!! Thanks Councilwoman Cindy Bass and State Representative Cherelle L. Parker!! We have a safe place and i met some great people like Ms. Lisa Ruffin Director of Pleasant Playground and Recreation Center, she has great programs for the family, like Zumba monday and wednesdays with Kenni, she instructs from7-8pm $6 per class, Martial Arts Shotokan Karate age 5 & up tuesday & thursday 6-7pm Sanuces Ryu Jiu Jitsu ages 7 and up tuesday and thursday 7-:30 pm 610.570.7880, Hope from The Community Art Collectivewww.TheCAC.wix.com/CArtC and Born A Star Performance and Enrichment Center. There is a collection box for Hygiene Awareness, baseball, football teams a new pool and tennis courts!! Plenty of Love at Pleasant Playground!!

Pleasant Playground

(Poem created by neighbors during City Councilwoman Cindy Bass Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at Pleasant Playground, Saturday, October 18, 2014)

Pleasant Playground

Pleasant playground seems like a really great place for children of all ages to

come and have fun.

It’s a great playground, I

grew up playing here, A great

way to bring the community

together

Thanks

K.P

It Looks Great

To God be the Glory

Thank you for your support

for our youth

Good Memories As A Child !☺

Kids at play is a blessing to all!

Rev.E.R.Flores

Welcome Back

Pleasant Play

Ground

Atiba

It’s gonna be lots

of fun !

Ayah

East Mt. Airy Neighbors

loves & misses

Elvira Evans

who worked so

hard to bring

this here!

My son work

here

Love Spiral

Breizi I ❤

I Am

The

Help!

Gabrielle

Very Nice

& Love the

Look

A great place for

children and families!

Pleasant

Playground

is really

fun and

children

all ages

can

Play.

Saniyah

Christop

her

Beautiful

Space much

Needed Playground

Thank You

L. Lear

A Great

Space

For a

Great Place

Mt. Airy

Kellan R. White

It is a

Pleasure to be

in Pleasant Playground

A safe place for

kids

Rev. Watson Jones III

I HEART ART

Looks great!

Thank you Pleasant playground

Pleasant

Playground

The ground

works for success

T.

Building relationships

and raising communities

This is what this rec

Symbolizes.

Thank You.

Beautiful

Place for our

Children to grow

& play. ☺

It’s always Good

To come home

and see good things

Love You All

Warren

Oliver

100 Block

Pleasant St

Pleasant Playground

Going to be Awesome

& Beautiful !☺

So far,

So good

Dom Uptown

Minds attract Minds

Kids are the heartbeat

We keep things together.

Lets grow Together.

Pleasant is Love

S.G.

AS A COMMUNITY

WE BUILD UNITY…

ᔑ PLEASANT PLAYGROUND ᔑ

IS A PRIME EXAMPLE

EDGE

(playground)

This has been

my safe home for

over 35 yrs.

Thank You

Pleasant Playground

a place of peace

love & happiness

God Bless!

Bishop Linda C. Herring

It’s a pleasant

playground!

Thank You,

great

Job S.H.B. Sr

It is a stable force

in the community

Born A Star

Enrichment and Performing

Arts Program

Pleasant New playground

is a great environment

for the youth & adults alike

Thanks to all those who

work so hard to make it possible

“70’s” Kid - Grand opening of the

Swimming Pool - West Side - Stand Up!

❤

Interacting

With

My Neighbors

Alicia D.

Pleasant PlayGround!!

Write Your Block Session Pleasant Playground

Host Artist Alicia Dorsey

( actual addresses not represented just the blocks number)

Write Your Block @ Pleasant Playground

Redfield 1700

A quiet and very “homey” community

400 S. 19th St.

Quite, a nice place to walk

400 Block Louden St

TREE LINED, QUIET BLOCK, NEIGHBORLY

1800 Beverly Rd.

 Nice, Neighborly

Unit Block West WEAVER St.

(Quiet/5-7 generations of Family)

200 E. Montana St

6400 Emlen St.

(Quiet)

200 Montana St.

(Quiet)

8400 Williams Ave.

Quiet nice block

300 Blk Meehan Ave.

Neighborly Love & Unity !!:)

1400 Block of N. 7th Street

Nice Neighbors

1200 Palethorp

Family

4800 N. 9th St.

Interracial Neighborhood

6800 Pleasant

Chew & Belfield Neighbors Club, Inc

215.849.8021

6800 Block of Clearview St

Thank You for being here!

6600 Block of Musgrave Street

Thank You for being here!

6800 Clearview St.

Where the children never leave!

6600 Chew Ave.

Johnson’s We Are Family!!

500 Johnson Street

Home is where ….

8200 Block of Forrest Ave

We are an organized Block Striving to Keep our Neighborhood Safe

300 Sharpnack Street

Awesome !!:)

200 E Slocum St

6600 Sprague St.

Active - Caring - Involved

6900 Wister St

Nice Place

Mechanic St

Nice Place

60th Ardleigh

Diva Dollz and Co. Congrats.!

6429 Camac St.

6600 Block of Musgrave St

Brenda V.

600 Durham St.

It’s a nice place, Best thing ever!!

1800 Elston St

Warren Oliver From 100 Block Pleasant St The Oliver’s 1960-70

Pleasant Place Best of Luck!!!:)

100 E. Meehan Ave.

Quiet.

800 Washington Lane Phila

Congrats!

4400 Block of Pine

Vibrant

2100 E. Clearfield St.

Needs to be cleaned up!

500 Block of W Nedro Ave

Rickie Bethen Pleasant St

6200 Cedar

Ave Sadly, You can Smell The People Before You See Them!

UPTOWN

Changing

Sharpnack St.

Inspiring

LIMEKILN PIKE

I LUV IT

100 Pleasant St.

cars drive too fast!

Cliveden St 300 Block

200 E. Solcum St.

Born & Raised on this St.=Good Times!:)