The month of March was a busy one with many volunteer groups coming from out of town to volunteer in New Orleans!  We were fortunate to have groups from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, United Way of Northwest Michigan, Sewanee, and Fisk University come and volunteer with us.  The group of Fisk University students additionally spoke to the Xavier Prep students about college and preparation for college on March 6, 2013.

In addition to managing volunteers, I spent much of March grant writing.  Kedila has reapplied for a 21^st Century Community Learning Center grant (21^st CCLC) from the Louisiana Department of Education.  The grant is for After School and Summer Camp programming in two schools: Benjamin Banneker Elementary and Middle School and Xavier University Preparatory School.

Assistance will be provided in the following areas:

• Homework Assistance

• Physical Fitness

• Field Trips

• Snacks

• Transportation

• Enrichment Activities: Martial Arts, Gardening, Arts and Crafts, Digital Media, and more

For more information, contact:

Dipo Mosadomi                                     (504)723-8831                          dipo@kedila.org

Please contact us if interested in being an instructor or volunteer for our Summer Camp program or if you would like to recommend a participant!

-Betsy Bateman, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA, Kedila Family Learning Services

Watch the video trailer below:

The National Service Fair is bringing together a wide range of service programs to show students the variety of options they have after graduation. National Service programs can be a great bridge to future careers or the perfect “gap year” for students interested in taking a year off before grad school.

RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/360090330773202/?fref=ts

Organizations that will be tabling at the event include:

• Young Adult Volunteers
• Project Homecoming
• City Year
• St. Bernard Project
• Playworks NOLA
• Notre Dame Mission Volunteers
• Avodah the Jewish Service Corps
• Teach for America
• Digital Opportunity Trust
• Peace Corps
• AmeriCorps VISTA
• Louisiana Delta Service Corps

The National Service Fair is sponsored by NOLA AmeriCorps Alums, Loyola’s Center for Community Engagement and Tulane’s Center for Public Service. 

For more information, email vista@tulane.edu.

Kedila has been blessed with many volunteers from Hands On New Orleans and also Service Learners from Loyola University, Tulane University, and Xavier University.  We are very thankful that these students are giving their time to help Banneker and Xavier Prep students, who participate in our After School Program, to reach their potential. Individualized attention truly makes a positive difference in the students’ lives.

Last semester, a volunteer from Tulane, Erin Ricketts, and a service learner from Loyola, Molly “Camille” Fiess, produced a video for the Companies with a Mission Super Service Challenge.  This video demonstrates the importance of individualized attention in the lives of Kedila’s students.  Please check it out on the Kedila Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/KedilaNewOrleans).  Thanks to Erin and Camille’s efforts, Kedila won $5000 of funding for its Summer Camp Program.

Kedila is gearing up for its Summer Camp Program, which will serve 200 students at its Banneker site.  Kedila is fortunate to have received NORDC funding for its Summer Camp Program.  The camp runs for seven hours a day, Monday through Friday for six weeks.  The mornings are dedicated to academic instruction and remediation aimed at bridging the gap between school years.  The afternoons of the summer program are dedicated to enrichment activities such as art class; karate lessons; African drumming and dance; educational seminars; field trips; science instruction and experimentation; and other traditional summer camp activities.  These activities help expose the students to information and activities to which they may not otherwise have access.  Students receive a nutritious breakfast, lunch, and snack each day.  The purpose of Kedila’s Summer Camp is to keep students academically engaged during the summer and to inspire a love of learning that will serve them for the rest of their lives.

Additionally, this month has been one of particular growth for me as a VISTA.  I have gotten to know many of the students at our Banneker site, and I have seen how much potential they have.  One of my favorite moments this month was the opportunity to chaperone the sixth graders at Banneker as they traveled to a Hornets game.  This was a reward for their increase of 0.5 in their GPAs.  It was a very fun night and a great chance to spend time with the students outside of the typical Kedila classroom environment!

I hope that in my year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA I have and will continue to help these students achieve their potential.  This experience has already taught me so much and helped me on my way to achieving my own potential.  I am very grateful for the opportunity to serve my community for a year as a Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA at Kedila Family Learning Services.

-Betsy Bateman, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA, Kedila Family Learning Services

YRNO was recently awarded a total of $29,000 from Companies with a Mission and the Brees Dream Foundation in the New Orleans Super Service Challenge! We are so grateful to our volunteer groups who made this possible. Jefferson County Open School’s video won $10,000. Ad Majorem’s video won $5,000. Additionally, Central Congregational Church, Darton State, Ernst & Young,Sci Academy, Tulane’s Center for Public Service,  Tulane’s Butler Residence, and Wheeling Jesuit all won $2,000 each. We are elated about our success in the competition and can’t thank our supporters enough!

This month, Youth Rebuilding New Orleans is competing in another voting completion: Gulf Coast Bank’s Community Rewards Program. The program is awarding a total of $50,000 to 10 New Orleans charities. You can help YRNO win a portion of that money by simply voting for us every day. We are currently in the top 15 out of 300+ participants and need your help to break into the top 10. Each email address can vote once per day until March 4th! We are currently ranked in the top 15 of over 350 teams and need your help to keep it up!

How to Vote:
1) Click here! 
2) Type in your email and click “Email my Access Code”
3) Check your email. A 5 digit access code should arrive shortly.
4) Go back here and select “Youth Rebuilding New Orleans” all the way at the bottom.
5) Fill in your info and click vote! Repeat daily!

All prize money goes directly towards empowering youth, giving back to teachers and stabilizing communities. After 6 months of working at YRNO, I can genuinely say: I couldn’t ask to work for a more deserving non-profit!

-Lauren Lim, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA, Youth Rebuilding New Orleans

My last update was a couple months ago, and much has happened since then. I have a pretty clear understanding of what my job here entails, and what I should accomplish by the end of my VISTA term in July.

Interns

I recently designed an Intern Request Packet for FirstLine. For the past few months, I have been posting intern openings on various websites, going to service fairs, etc. So far, I’ve only filled two positions, but the others are all in the interview phase. Until now, however, FirstLine had no real internship program. Individual staff/faculty member could seek out interns independently, but rarely had the means or time to do so.

By the time I leave, I hope to have a system in place for any employee of FLS to request and intern using a standard form, and asking HR to seek and screen candidates.

Newsletters

Three of four schools I work with regularly produce newsletter. I design the one at LHA, and the other two schools handle it themselves. I also design and produce our network newsletter, the Parent Resource Central.

There has been some skepticism as to how many parents actually read these newsletters, so I’ve set up an experiment. For the next round of publications, I’ll place a small ad in the three school newsletters. There will be an email address and phone number, and parents can enter to win a gift card. This will accomplish three things: answer to how many parents read it, answer to how parents prefer to response, and also if we ask a question it doubles as a survey. Not to mention, of course, the cumulative promotional effect.

By the end of my service year, my main priorities are to make sure every school and the network are set up to continue productions of the newsletters. I would like to to see more parents getting involved, and my goal will be to hand off to them as much as possible.

Enrollment

Every Friday I meet with the FLS Enrollment Team to assist with the student enrollment push for next school year. I produced a spreadsheet with all the local daycares centers, then split it up by geographic location and sent it to the respectively closest schools. I’m also seeking an intern or two to help with data entry and outreach needed to support enrollment efforts. When needed, I visit the schools to check in and offer assistance, share out information, or pick up and drop off more OneApp forms.

Event Promotion

Over the past few months, I’ve helped promote a number of events. These included Community Days and Food Days at various schools, plus getting the word out about parents meetings and other events. I used both the newsletters and SchoolReach as a communication tool.

In December, I helped set up for the Outreach Winter Showcase at Green Charter School. I worked with Tulane Center for Public service to use that event as an opportunity to enter the CWAM Super Service Challenge, sponsored by the Drew Brees Foundation. In the end, Outreach won $2000.

My VISTA counterpart over at Clark Prep High School is organizing a 5K + Health Fair, and she asked me to assist a little with that. I built our event website over at Eventbrite.com, designed the sponsor letter, and helped make some connections with the FirstLine K-8 schools.

Parents

I’ve been attending most of the monthly parent organization meetings at each school. This leads me to The Parent Question, a sort of step-back-and-look  that I’ve been asked to think about. The question is, “Why do we care about parents?” I’ve also expanded it to ask why do they care about us, if they do.

The first thing I realized was that the lack of parent engagement in our school does not seem to be related to logistics. You can tweak the date and time, you can expand the number of communication methods, you can bring lots of food; none of this guarantees that parents will come to your school event or meeting.

I think what our parents care about most is Legacy. If we give them more power and responsibility in their school and fold them into the story of FirstLine’s rise to success, I believe they will be more enthusiastic and involved. The newsletters could be a great way to start this process.

Etcetera

I take on various random tasks as they come up. My supervisor recently asked me to start organization an athletics award ceremony, so I’ll be looking into that soon. I went to the MLK Service Day at Arthur Ashe and help remove sod from a new garden bed.

I continue to write the occasional blog post, all of which can be viewed here: http://firstlineschools.blogspot.com/

My work at FirstLine so far has been extremely rewarding. I’ve been busy and productive, and I’ve had a great time getting to know the people here. My hope is to really get everything I started done by the end of the year, and to make sure the systems and projects I initiated this year have a way to thrive once I’m gone.

-Jason Lacoste, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA, FirstLine Schools

For this month’s kids program at the Southern Food & Beverage Museum I led a mini king cake decorating workshop. We made our own icing, decorated the cakes with sprinkles and learned a bit about the king cake tradition.

If you’d like to learn more about king cake (if you’re in New Orleans, I’m sure you’ve eaten A LOT already!) check out NittyGrits.org. Nitty Grits is a new project from SoFAB. It’s an online international culinary dictionary that  we launched on Twelfth Night with the King Cake entry. I’ve been adding new entries each day, so it’s been quite a fun project for me.

We’re looking for more people to get involved and contribute content, so email NittyGrits@southernfood.org if you’re interested.

Follow Nitty Grits on Twitter @NittyGritsWords to keep up with the Word of the Day

Check out the slideshow: SoFab Slideshow

-Lucy Rosenbloom, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA, Southern Food and Beverage Museum

Happy New Year!  2013 brings new opportunities for Kedila to grow and further our mission of providing education, training, support services, and affordable and safe housing for the constituency we serve.

Kedila is very fortunate to have established a partnership with Xavier University Preparatory School.  In addition to operating at Banneker Elementary and Middle School, Kedila’s After School Program will now also operate at Xavier Prep.  On a similar note, Kedila will have both sites open for its Summer Camp program, and Kedila is looking to expand its After School Program to serve students at Homer A. Plessy Community School when it opens in fall 2013.

Kedila is also excited about its new partnership with Tulane’s Workforce Management Office.  Tulane Work-Study Students will serve as one-on-one tutors to give students in Kedila’s After School Program the individualized attention they need.  Additionally, Xavier University Service Learning students will be helping students in Kedila’s After School Program with a digital media enrichment project.

Kedila is thankful that it has an industrious intern named Yuxin “Heidi” Zhang.  In addition to tutoring and mentoring the students, Heidi will help continue generating Kedila’s monthly newsletter and also develop lesson plans for enrichment activities.

Hands On New Orleans has been an excellent partner, and Kedila is fortunate to have Amna Aziz as a Hands On Volunteer Leader again this semester.  Amna will continue to lead special hands-on enrichment activities with the students at the Banneker site.

If you are interested in volunteering with Kedila or becoming a Kedila instructor, please e-mail me at betsy@kedila.org.  You can help provide the individualized attention that the students in our After School and Summer Camp programs need to reach their potential and be successful in life.

-Betsy Bateman, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA, Kedila Family Learning Services

Most of the last month has been put on hold with the Holidays.  Now that school is now back in session, Plessy is plugging forward into the final leg of our long journey to opening doors in August 2013.  Homer A. Plessy will be hosting their Spring Open House this upcoming Thursday.  This is one of our last pushes for community outreach before the chaos of Carnival season begins.  Mardi Gras is around the corner and despite all the tips and warnings from friends and colleagues, I’m anxious about living up to the test for a festive season.  On the other hand, I’m beyond excited to be in the middle of it all.  The whole year is passing by in a whirlwind, and I’m excited to jump into the last leg of my service year.  The school up until now has been a 2 person staff with the help of our founding community.  By summer, we should have a whole team of staff and faculty to help us open doors to students in August.  This means lots of resumes, interviews, trainings, meetings, and brand new supplies!  Let’s see how this goes and dive head first!

- Jean Hsu, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA, Homer Plessy School

Well, I’m back at the Alliance after having two weeks off for vacation. The first week went pretty well, since I was in Georgia for Christmas, but the second week was a disaster after returning to New Orleans, because I was sick with the flu for most of the week, but I did survive, and thought I’d better finish my December monthly report before things get too busy for me in January, which by the way begins my 11 month as an AmeriCorps/Visa Volunteer.

December went incredibly fast starting with our house party on Dec. 6^th. The house party was to raise some much needed funds for the Alliance, but also to reconnect with our community members and supporters. We had the event at the Canal Street Inn, which is a bed and breakfast, and owned and operated by Monica Ramsey, who hosted the event, and is one of our board members for the Alliance for Affordable Energy.

Because of all of Monica’s hard work setting up everything at the Inn, and Jessica Netto’s (AAE’s new Director of Operations) amazing skills in advertising the event. We had a great turnout.  Over 60 people showed up for the event and we raised over 3000.00 dollars. We had some great food catered by the Canal Street Bistro with a good amount of wine and some awesome music. The music was performed live by a local artist and native of New Orleans, Cristina Perez.  Of course, I helped out too. I was the bartender for the evening. It was mostly wine, which made it easy, but we also had some potent eggnog and a refreshingly spiked apple cider, which was spiked with rum and the first thing to go. It was a grand night.

The rest of the month seemed to just fly by. The following week I started interviewing for our internship program for the spring semester and I had a good turnout of interested students. I had eight positions to fill and they should all be filled by Jan. 22^nd, which is the start of our spring internship.

We had a few other projects and events at the Alliance before the beginning of the holiday vacation, but nothing compares to the success of the house party and the amazing people I interviewed, who were very excited about volunteering their time and skills helping out the Alliance for the 2013 spring semester.

-Jon Scott, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA, Alliance for Affordable Energy

In other news, YRNO has updated its website content and sent out a pretty successful newsletter. I’m proud to say that I contributed to both projects! If you’re interested in learning about on our organization’s accomplishments this year, I invite you to check our newsletter out by clicking here.  We have also made a lot of progress on our Olympia St. home.

This is a picture of Olympia when we first started working on the home.

This is a picture of Olympia today! The progress is amazing. To check out more pictures from Olympia (before and after!) check out our facebook page.

I am also excited to announce that things are going well for YRNO in the Super Service Challenge! For those of you who are not familiar, the Super Service Challenge is a contest that is being sponsored by Companies with a Mission and the Brees Dream Foundation. The Challenge asks that people form small groups, volunteer with a New Orleans non-profit and submit a video about their experience to the contest by January. The videos are judged by judges and voted on by the public. Winning videos will win $2,000-$25,000 for their charities. This challenge has been a blessing for New Orleans non-profits like Youth Rebuilding New Orleans. We are so grateful—9 different groups supporting YRNO have already submitted videos to the contest! They are Ad Majorem, Central Congregational Church, Darton State Servant Leadership, Ernst and Young, Jefferson County Open School, Sci Academy, Tulane Butler 5 Residents, Tulane CPS and Wheeling Jesuit. You can check them out at http://cwam.com/super-service-challenge-voting/, and please vote for YRNO today!

-Lauren Lim, Tulane AmeriCorps VISTA, Youth Rebuilding New Orleans