Uth ACT

September, 2011: Recruitment month

And we're off!!!!  Ten of our college aged AmeriCorps members who will be working with the Uth ACT program visited the 4 high schools to recurit for the program. Recruitment tables were set up in the lunch rooms,  AmeriCorps gave presentations in classrooms, and afterschool informational meetings were held.  We averaged about 15 teens at each meeting!!  At this pace, we will have 80 Uth ACT members in no time!!

October, 2011: 40 teens attend our 1st Saturday Seminar "LET'S RELATE"

Our first official meeting was held on Saturday, October 8th at the Hampton Teen Center.  Not the 80 teens we were hoping for, but definately not a bad showing with 40 teens in attendance.  Members participated in teambuilding fun together, and were introduced to RELATE, a youth to youth  program focused on dating violence prevention. Not only did the members learn about dating violence themselves, they learned the skills necessary to faciliate the program with 9th graders during health classes.  What a great introduction to service learning!!

October, 2011 Practice makes perfect

After the Saturday Seminar, our members spent the next 3 weeks working with AmeriCorps to learn the RELATE curriculum, and also to practice facilitating the 4 classroom sessions they would eventually be leading.  Uth ACT members got up in front of one another to lead 'teach-backs' of the various sessions, and recieve feedback from their peers about their presentation skills.  As all this was happening, everyone increased their knowledge about dating violence and also gained hands on skills in leadership. 

November, 2011 RELATE begins

Our forty teen trainers and ten AmeriCorps leaders hit the 9th grade health classes at each high school, reaching a total of 1,200 freshmen!!  The freshmen we were teaching were extremely responsive to the activities and information we presented, and many of them wanted to know how they could get involved in Uth ACT.   The classroom teachers we got to know were really impressed with our group, and requested we come back again next year.  

November, 2011 2nd Saturday seminar Academic Achievement Gap

Saturday, November 19-  50 teens and 10 AmeriCorps members attend our 2nd Saturday Seminar.  Many of the kids in attendance were new members who learned about us through the RELATE classes we taught this month.  This sesison focused on reflection on RELATE, and how the program helped us all grow as leaders.  Through our 'teaching' we realized we were actually 'learning', too.  This was the lead in for our discussion on the achievement gap-how so many students are disengaged from school because they don't see the relevance in it.  Our own 'hands on learning' through RELATE was a good way for us to really begin to understand how we could impact other youth's education by involving them in their own learning.

December, 2011: Getting the attention of the Press

slow month for us with the upcoming holiday and with our AmeriCorps members heading home for winter break.  Good month, though, for garnishing media attention.  Met with our local public television station to discuss the program and how we were trying to impact the achievement gap.  They seem very interested in coming out on January 21 to film our Saturday Seminar and also to interview some of the teens.   Also, we have been in contact with the 'education reporter' from our local newspaper to explain the program, and she is also very interested in coming on teh 21st.  Good things are in the mix!

january, 2012 New Year 'KICK' off

The entire month of january has been devoted to our group's next focus project:  KICK (Kids Involved in Community Kindness)  KICK is a service learning program that helps children, grades 3-5, learn how to identify a community problem, search for root causes, and then work to solve it with creative solutions. 

Our teams of AmeriCorps and Uth ACT members received over 20 hours of instruction in service learning as a methodology, youth as resources, and how to facilitate the KICK Curriculum.  Uth ACT members also received instruction on elemenatry classroom management, which was really different than managing a classroom of high school students.

The most exciting part of the month happened at our Saturday Seminar on January 21, when Mick Bock from the State Farm Youth Advisory Board joined us for our 'Check Presentation'.  Also, the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Linda Shifflette was present along with a member of Hampton City Council.

On January 31, we will be going in the elementary afterschool programs in teams to begin teaching KICK.  Our goal is to teach the kids they do have a voice and some power in their own community, and in their own lives, to really make a difference. 

February, 2012 KICK it up a notch!

KICK is underway!   Currently, we are running service learning programs in 18 different schools, reaching about 200 3rd-5th graders.

Early sessions of the program focus on inspiring the children to want to serve others, and how to identify a problem in their school.  We took the kids on school walks, observing what is right with the school, and what needs to be corrected.  The problems the children have identified range from Dirty bathrooms to short supplies of library books to failing playground equipment to bullying!!  These kids are smart! 

Next steps will be to help them learn why their chosen problem exists, and to find a solution that will create long lasting impacts.

February's Saturday seminar was about improving our communication skills and ablity to lead our groups.   

March, 2012 Grad Nation summit and THRIVE!

March was a big month for Uth ACT.  Several Uth ACT members and AmeriCorps leaders attended the Grad nation Summit in Washington DC., focused on the drop out rate and how to deal with the Achievement Gap.  Experts from across the country were there, and over 100 teens came, too, everyone focused on the same issues that we were.  It was really fun and we met a lot of cool people.  The workshops we attended gave us a lot more information about the problem and more creative solutions for how to think about it.  On the van ride home, we talked about the ideas we wanted to work on next year, including working on reading skills of elementary kids, one of the predictors of the drop out problem.

Our March Saturday seminar, THRIVE, introduced us to how as people we all learn differently: Howard Gardner's 8 intelligences (Nature smart, body smart, word smart, math smart, spacial smart, people smart, music smart, self smart)  We talked about how many kids lose interest in school because they don't feel smart and because they learn differently.  THRIVE is good because it helps kids see that everyone really is smart, but in different ways.  It can be a way to offer them encouragement to stay in school and also goals for a career.  If kids lose hope and don't see a future for themselves, they are more likely to drop out.

Now we are working on our plans for global Youth service day, which include a day long THRIVE workshop for our KICK kids and their parents.  We are working with the PTA to recruit additonal kids to the workshop.

April, 2012

April kept us really busy! We spent the beginning of the month volunteering at a Spring Break Day Camp and really enjoyed the new atmosphere where we got to play games, do team building activities and participate in different programs. As the month went on our Uth Act members and AmeriCorps leaders worked with their KICK teams and implemented their projects. Several members wrapped up their sessions and have now completed KICK!

Towards the end of the month, several of the Uth Act members and AmeriCorps leaders participated in a Night of Homelessness. They rose awareness about this community issue by sleeping outside in boxes for a night, listening to guest speakers, and watching a documentary.

Now that the month has ended we continue to work towards our plans for a THRIVE workshop on Global Youth Service Day! We are also planning a final reflection meeting and a trip to celebrate the accomplishiments of the Uth Act members this year.