Red Hen Exploring Our Conditions explores issues and concerns in our Communities with a Focus on Community Responsibility and Civic Engagement.
#TeamRhino #SaveTheRhino #SaveFive
Raising Awareness to protect our #WildLife, Please take the pledge:
I would like to join #TeamRhinodotorg in the fight against rhino poaching to ensure a future for people and vulnerable wildlife on our planet:
I will never buy or promote any products made of rhino horn, as I know that demand drives poaching.
I will be a committed advocate to support rangers and others on the frontlines of rhino conservation.
I will share my passion about rhino conservation and recruit my friends and family to become involved.
I will urge my government to continue championing efforts to stop rhino poaching at home and abroad.
I will stand with IRF to help save rhinos from extinction. teamrhino.org
Honorable State Representative Curtis Thomas is a true supporter of the arts. His office held a Teen Summit on Valentines Day where our youth were allowed to showcase their talent via: Write Your Block, Open Mic and Bomb Squad recording a song and performing their fantastic dance moves. Ms. Boyd resident and community advocate along with The East Broad Communities That Care Network were instrumental in assisting State Rep. Thomas in putting the teen summit together.
Youth from Spring Garden Projects with chaperone Nina Leadum, Express Urself Youth Crisis Center with chaperone Terry Starks and the immediate neighborhood attended the summit held at Harrison Street Boys and Girls Club. The teens learned about health issues facing teens from 11th Street Health Clinic, college information from Harcum College, and all kinds of resources from State Rep. Thomas office.
Long time community advocates were there to support Honorable State Rep. Curtis Thomas. Graff-X corp as well as staff from Rep. Thomas office walked around and talked to the youth. I had the honor of hosting a Write Your Block session, a citywide initiative created by our Poet Laureate Frank Sherlock to map our city with poetry. www.creativephl.org/writeyourblock We were able to have several poets create poems for Write Your Block. Amazing what is on the minds of our youth and how much talent we have in us all. Rap artist Celebrity performed an inspirational rap and talked to the youth about making the right choice, staying in school and you have to make money to make your dreams come true. Youth were offered full college scholarships, one on one talks with Celebrity and the Dream Team who played live music for us all. Best of all for me, i was able to meet 12 year old Siaimani Warden during our Write Your Block session and give her some advice. The Teen Summit was a great opportunity for us to pass on our knowledge and assist as a village in growing our future!!
One Book One Philadelphia is always on point for me and the longitudinal documentary that i am producing on various issues and concerns affecting our society and international communities. “Orphan Train” wow, you never really know how huge the most vulnerable community is until a great series like One Book One Philadelphia sheds so much light on unspoken concerns. concerns, buried and now become issues.
Issues that could have been avoided if Spartan mentality did not exist in our reality. My eyes shut instantly and swell with tears when you label human life as throw away. ghost ghost ghost town is what Strawberry Mansion is turning into. seems the entire community is being thrown away and yet i have hope and inspiration for my community. sad we had to lose so much.
Culture, what culture? my search is to grow understanding for diverse culture. as life unfolds i understand that some in our society are stuck on power structures that benefit them and neglects others. i am so happy to meet citizens i see myself in like Ann Marie Kirk co-founder of Arts for Justice. Ann Marie mission began in 1995 when she met Charles Lawson co- founder Arts for Justice, via his paintings that raise awareness about the prison industry and rape of culture.
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 a panel discussion was held on “Fostering a Sense of Family” i listen to young citizens who have been through or are currently in foster care and would stood out the most is the pain and uncertainty that those young citizens experience daily. These citizens don’t want pity parties, they need extra support because their family culture broke apart. Please do not stigmatize citizens coming out of foster care, life has placed a stigma on these citizens much like the stigma returning citizen carry with them. my heart began to ache as i thought of the closing of Germantown high school whose population was largely homeless. i asked if state budget cuts had any effect on their well being. the reply was yes and in several ways. before the cuts citizens aging out of foster care were automatically giving housing via Philadelphia housing authority, now they are on waiting list for affordable housing. Also school is the one constant in some of these citizens lives, cuts to support services and activities affects the culture these young citizens are looking to define for themselves.
“ I listen to Mr. Sorenson and nod politely as he talks, but it’s hard to concentrate. I feel myself retreating to someplace deep inside. It is a pitiful kind of childhood, to know that no one loves you or is taking care of you, to always be on the outside lookin in. I feel a decade older than my years. I know too much: I have seen people at their worst, at their most desperate and selfish, and this knowledge makes me wary. So I am learning to pretend, to smile and nod, to display empathy I do not feel. I am learning to pass, to look like everyone else, even though I feel broken inside”. pg112
“ As a newcomer Molly had liked the distance her persona created, the wariness and mistrust she saw in the eyes of her peers. But though she’s loath to admit it, lately that persona has begun to feel restrictive. It takes ages to get the look right every morning, and rituals once freighted with meaning-dyeing her hair jet-black accented with purple or white streaks, rimming her eyes with kohl, applying foundation several shades lighter than her skin tone, adjusting and fastening various pieces of uncomfortable clothing-now make her impatient. She feels like a circus clown who wakes up one morning and no longer wants to glue on the red rubber nose. Most people don’t have to exert so much effort to stay in character. Why should she? She fantasizes that the next place she goes-because there’s always a next place, another foster home, a new school-she’ll start over with a new, easier-to-maintain look. Grunge? Sex kitten? pg5
I look over at Dutchy, and he looks back at me. Mrs. Scatcherd knows as little as we do about whether we’ll be chosen by people who will treat us with kindness. We are headed toward the unknown, and we have no choice but to sit quietly in our hard seats and let ourselves be taken there. pg45
And in that moment, with bravado borrowed from Jack, it is okay. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. Molly learned long ago that a lot of the heartbreak and betrayal that other people fear their entire lives, she has already faced. Father dead. Mother off the deep end. Shuttled around and rejected time and time again. And still she breathes and sleeps and grows taller. she wakes up every morning and puts on clothes. So when she says it’s okay, what she means is that she knows she can survive just about anything. And now, for the first time since she can remember, she has someone looking out for. (What’s his problem anyway?) pg10
But I am skeptical. I know all too well how it is when the beautiful visions you’ve been fed don’t match up with reality. pg31
“Orphan Train” Christina Baker Kline
i asked why do they have to move around so much, the answer was DHS hadn’t been doing a good job with preparing and screening foster homes, but DHS is under a major transformation and care is getting better.
i have hope because we have Pope Francis and The Meeting of Families coming to Philadelphia September 2015. Like Dr. Maria Montessori, Pope Francis reaches out to the most vulnerable in our society and encourages them to be the best they can be. in no way am i a religious person, i just see Pope Francis as the coolest Pope ever
i was looking to host host some family conference this year because i’m tired of protesting when i can be the change i want to see. the so called powers that be didn’t want to join me and i can’t get the help i would like so i decided to put the conference off for now. still exploring!!
if you would like to assist and address the concern and issues of foster care please visit these links:
Social Emotional Development is created when kindness is incorporated into the family school culture. Wow, watching Dr. Oz today I learned about another kindness initiative “The Sparkle Effect” a cheerleading student ran nonprofit whose goal is to include all students. The kindness factor is truly proven by the work of Ms. Sarah Cronk, Founder of “The Sparkle Effect”. Life changing effects is what kindness creates in the lives touched by kind deeds.Moreover, early research findings suggest that the new generation of Social Emotional Learning approaches is having significant and positive impacts on students’ overall well-being, their behavior in and out of school, and their academic performance as well. (http://www.nasbe.org/wp-content/uploads/FPP-Social-Emotional-Learning.pdf)
Cronk's older brother, Charlie, is disabled, and she watched him struggle to fit in when they were in high school. When the captain of the swim team invited Charlie to join his friends for lunch, it inspired others to include him more as well. Cronk saw what that act of kindness did for her brother, and she wanted to bring the same spirit of acceptance to others.
She asked her cheerleading coach if the Pleasant Valley High team might be able to create a side squad comprised of able-bodied and disabled students, the Spartan Sparkles, to cheer during certain games and events. Her teammates jumped on board and, using a one-to-one ratio of mentor to Sparkle, they practiced and performed, becoming the first inclusive cheerleading squad in the country.
"A lot of these kids were pretty invisible before this program," she said. "And a lot of that was just because people didn't know what to say or what to do -- as if communicating with them was worlds different from communicating with anybody else. So maybe there's a girl with disabilities in your science class and you see her sitting alone every day but you don't really know anything about her, you don't really know what you would say. Then you see her cheering in a game on Friday and she's doing a great job. You can say 'Hey, you did a great job at that game,' and she feels comfortable and it boosts her confidence and you've sort of bridged that gap.
Please use #RAKweek to tag your social media posts so they can find them.
they will feature their favorite posts throughout the week.
FEBRUARY 9-15, 2015
International Random Acts of Kindness Week is February 9-15, 2015. Take this week to step out of your normal routine or comfort zone and attempt a new random act of kindness each day of the celebratory week. Post and share your stories, photos, videos and ideas on our social media channels.
