The Problem
We are a group of 5 high school students who along with our teacher wish to engage in our communities to create positive change. We feel passionate about helping others, trash, food, music and community. We wish for you and the community to support our awesome project.
Our Plan
Spring Break Day Camp
Created By: AZVA Service-Learning Students: LeeAnne, Aliyah, Connor, Brandon, and Cy’anne with Ms. Leslie Fox, Teacher
Vision
That all youth in our communities should have ample opportunities to be engaged in educational activities that build their passions and link them to needs in the community to create change in their world and to have fun doing so.
Mission
To work with community partners to achieve a collective impact in the lives of our youth.
• To host a FREE Spring Break Day Camp in Flagstaff, AZ, March 15th – 17th from 12:00pm-6:00pm offering free daily Service-Learning workshops focused on Food, Trash, and Music.
Introduction
Service-Learning is a class where students take a critical look at themselves and the community in which they live. They expand their vision into the global community and identify needs that align with their passions to build a project idea. They learn all they can about their ideas by asking the critical questions needed to become experts and leaders to incite change in their worlds. We will share the foundation of this course presented in mini lessons by the AZVA SL student leaders. The students have worked along with their instructor to bring you this camp and will also share an event that was created four years ago by a SL student at AZVA that has been carried on and expanded upon each year: the 4th annual Trash-to-Treasure-Tribute. We have identified community partners to create a more dynamic experience for our youth and to create a larger ripple effect of change. Our goal is to provide an interdisciplinary experience for our students where they have ownership of the curriculum. “Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” -Leonardo da Vinci For more information you can take this tour on interdisciplinary curriculum: http://prezi.com/qkvl293gjucd/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
There is a need in our communities to engage youth during off school hours to develop their minds and sense of community. We can encourage our youth by providing fun educational service oriented programs and we will see a drop in criminal activity and rates of adjudicated youth (http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/offenders/qa03301.asp).
By studying the data and utilizing proven methods to engage youth in our communities we are creating a Spring Break Day Camp that will be free so all youth are able to participate. We have developed several aspects to this camp as we have partnered with the AZVA Service-Learning Class, The Market of Dreams, and the Boom Box Bro’s to bring you the 1st annual Spring Break Day Camp hosted live in Flagstaff. There will be three main sessions:
1. Repurposed Musical Mayhem: Presented by the Boom Box Bro’s
2. Discover Sunnyside Food Forest: Presented by Market of Dreams Youth Group, Ada and Leslie Fox
3. 4th annual Trash-to-Treasure-Tribute: Presented by AZVA student leaders and teacher, Leslie Fox
The Boom Box Bro’s are a local Flagstaff Rap group that will work with students to create music. We see that children that are exposed to music at an early age will outperform their peers later in their educational endeavors. Music soothes the soul and stimulates the mind. Participants will be exposed to more than just rap and will have the opportunity to perform their musical talents for community events. www.theboomboxbros.com
The Market of Dreams is a neighborhood store and community support network in the Sunnyside area of Flagstaff. Their mission is “…creating cooperative entrepreneurship and grassroots leadership”. http://www.marketofdreams.com/missionvision.html
They support a youth group that had started a project idea to catalog all the fruit trees in the Sunnyside neighborhood that they currently pick, donate most and process some of the fruit into an added value item of apple cider. We will work with them to map and catalog the trees. The map will be identify the food forest in this neighborhood and will be provided to others to share in their bounty and to help preserve them.
Market of Dreams is making documentary of their story and this will all be filmed by an internationally acclaimed filmmaker and the final version will be shown at film festivals around the world. Participants will have the opportunity to assist in the filming, editing and creation of this documentary as well as perhaps be in the final cut.
Arizona Virtual Academy’s Service-Learning class will work with the camp to show participants how they can create art from trash and display it in a community performance on April 2nd, 2016 in our Trashy Fashion Show or in a musical performance by the Boom Box Bro’s for the opening reception of the 14th annual Recycled Art Exhibition at the Flagstaff Mall. We will host the 4th annual Trash-to-Treasure-Tribute for all of AZVA students in April during the weekend of the 15th-17th, 2016 for Global Youth Service Action Day. Please visit this site for an historical tour of this student created event: http://prezi.com/gcxlai0n34wy/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Partnerships
To accomplish our dreams we need the support of our community. The AZVA SL Class has worked together as a group to present this plan. We have formed a partnership in the community of Flagstaff with the Market of Dream’s Youth Group, The 14th annual Recycled Art Exhibition and the Boom Box Bro’s but we need the backing of the greater community of Flagstaff and others across AZ to realize our mission. We will also seek to partner with k12, FUSD, Univision, The City of Flagstaff, community members, businesses and more.
Marketing
We will use social media, fliers, and newspapers, send PSA to the radio stations, AZVA News Letter, kmail, Bobcat Den, school newspaper, website, Sunnyside Radio Station at the Market of Dreams and more.
Camp Schedules and Objectives
Flagstaff Camp: The scheduling of the day will be flexible as we may do our lunch earlier to accommodate the activity and may switch event times due to weather or adult leaders’ schedules. 3 days.
12:00pm-1:00pm Youth Leadership meeting with Leslie Fox and AZVA SL students
1:00pm-1:15pm Welcome, sign in
1:15pm-2:15pm Discover Sunnyside Food Forest: Presented by Market of Dreams Youth Group, Ada and Leslie Fox, Farmer and SL teacher
Participants will:
• Engage in the Service-Learning objectives
• Understand the cycle of food, where does it come from and where does it go
• Identify current issues affecting our supply of food
• Infer the need to act
• Identify every fruit tree in the Sunnyside Farm neighborhood
• Learn what other useful plants are growing in the neighborhood
• Catalogue location of plants identified
• Create a map of plants
• Create care guides
• Schedule maintenance routine
• Report findings
2:15-2:30 Snack, socializing and games:
2:30-3:30 Repurposed Musical Mayhem: Join the Boom Box Bro’s to bust a rhyme or two.
Participants will:
• Engage in Service-Learning objectives
• Identify different genres of music
• Create original lyrics and music
• Learn dance moves paired to style of music
• Perform their music and dance
3:30-3:45 Break and games
3:45-4:45 Dinner, activities
4:45-6:00 4th annual Trash-to-Treasure-Tribute (T4): Lead by Leslie Fox and AZVA students
Vision: The method our community uses and disposes of materials is crucial to many points of our economic and environmental future. We envision Flagstaff to be a leader in sound economic and environmental practices and to do so the sustainable use and disposal of materials must be our goal. We believe it is critical to develop a sustainable materials management system for Flagstaff that fulfills human needs and prospering, which uses less materials, reduces toxic pollution and recovers more of the materials used for upcycling. By upcycling recovered materials we can first and foremost stall or even eliminate the route of used materials into an unsustainable system. By encouraging upcycling we reduce the tax on our citizens to pay for filling the land or sending the used materials to recycling facilities, we create new business, and we stimulate the creative minds of our community to act civically responsible.
Mission: To create art from trash. We will make trashy fashion, repurposed musical mayhem and more. We will perform and display our art at the 14th annual Recycled Art Exhibition and at the AZVA Virtual T4 on Global Youth Service Action Day in April.
Participants will:
• Understand where trash comes from and where it goes
• Infer the need to change the normal cycle of trash
• Create art from trash
• Identify what can be recycled and what is trash
• Distinguish between recycling and repurposing
• Know the figures of trash and recyclables produced in their community
• Analyze data
• Collect items from their trash
• Recognize the need to keep the trash out of the landfill
• Infer the need to create less trash
• Arrange their trash
• Prepare a materials list and design plan for a project (cars, instruments or clothes)
• Assemble their project
• Evaluate the process
• Reflect on the experience
• Synthesize the information into a presentation
• Display their creations at the 14th annual Recycled Art Exhibition (RAE)
• Perform with their art at the opening reception of the RAE
• Educate others about the need to be aware of our trash and more importantly by showing how they took the first step to making a difference in reducing the greater community’s production of trash
6:00-6:15 Closures
6:15-7:00 Youth Leaders and Adult Facilitators closure and families pick up.
7:00-8:30 Youth Leader Dinner
Outcomes
• Empower youth leadership
• Increase youth volunteer hours in the community
• Increase participants’ knowledge
• Map of the Food Forest of Sunnyside
• Create art
• Reduce trash in the landfill
• Decrease juvenile crime
• Form lasting partnerships
Measuring Outcomes
• Document the progress of 5 youth leaders from AZVA
• Count the actual hours of service
• Survey participants to understand the baseline of knowledge and survey them at the end to gage learning
• Provide the map of trees
• Display art
• Weigh the art
• Survey the students each day at the beginning what did you do when you left here, track attendance
• Creating a commitment to host the 2nd annual Spring Break Day Camp in 2017
• We will create change in our community!