CLP: USA Programming: August 2008

CLP-Norte Vista (CLP@NoVi)

In the USA, CLP facilitates a year-long program at Norte Vista High School in the Alvord School District (CLP@NoVi).
This program began in 2009 with a Youth Grantmakers Fund grant and currently includes 15 youth and 8 young adults. In a youth collective, the organization meets monthly to explore social justice issues in the community, reflect on our experiences and take action.

The grant that supports this work has been renewed for 2011-2012 and we look forward to our continued work in Alvord Unified School District!

Activities have included:

- Overnight retreat to Los Angeles to explore topics of labor and immigration at the Garment District. A video of the retreat is available on YouTube ("CLP@NoVi: Discovering Los Angeles, Discovering Riverside, Discovering Ourselves Video")

- Monthly “Social Justice Saturdays” that engage youth and young adults through experiential learning in Riverside regarding the community's history of justice and its present issues (including interfaith organizing, migrant labor, agricultural development and community violence, environmental sustainability and food justice).

- On-campus meetings (on all Tuesday half-days) to reflect on our trips and plan for events on-campus, including a survey of discipline and violence

- International teleconferences with CLP-INDIA youth and young adult mentors

Upcoming Retreats:

- June 17-19: Leadership Camping Trip to Idyllwild Mountains (Planning and preparing for our work in 2011-2012)

From this group, 9 youth will participate in “Send US to INDIA”. These youth will serve as leaders and ambassadors as they prepare for a two-week trip to India this Summer (July 17-30) to interact with CLP youth and mentors abroad. Youth who participate will meet children and youth from CLP programs, learn about Indian culture and communities and reflect on their own role in a global system. This program is only available to students who participate in CLP@NoVi locally throughout the year. All fundraising is done as a group, leaving minimum expenses to the youth and their families.

CLP-Quail Valley

In 2010, CLP was invited to Quail Valley Elementary School in Menifee Unified School District to lead a short-term program on diversity and fairness. CLP mentors spent three days with over 70 children from 3rd and 4th grade classrooms discussing leadership, fairness and kindness as social justice.

The program included:

- Stories of child leaders from around the world
- CLP "Olympics"
- CLP-TV Interviews
- CLP Theatre Games
- Videos from children in India

At the end of the program, the children and young adult mentors developed a video "CLP@QVE" on the experience of the three days. This video is available online ("CLP@QVE").

CLP - Patriot High School: 2009-2010

PATRIOT HIGH SCHOOL: Pen Pal Program (2009-2010)

We have facilitated programs with local Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) classes, Link Crew programs, and journalism programs in our neighboring public schools. These students work with university students to deeply explore the effects poverty has on education and family life, how we create change, and what it means to live in global community.

As of now, we have developed programs with students from Patriot High School (PHS) in Jurupa Unified School District, and John W. North high school (North) in Riverside Unified School District. Approximately 15 minutes from our university, Patriot High School is the newest high school in the Jurupa Unified School District in Riverside, California. PHS’s enrollment includes 2,000 students, 150 of which are in the AVID program (program designed for lower socioeconomic students to prepare for four-year college acceptance) and 150 of which are in the Link Crew Program (program connecting upper classmen to lower classmen to prevent “Freshman Failure”). We work a journalism student at North, which is the closer school to the university being only 5 minutes away with and enrollment of 2,500 students.

With these students, we have operated a “Pen Pal” program that connects Southern Californian youth to their Indian counterparts. Two exchanges have already occurred, and students from both California and India have expressed their communication as one of their “favorite” parts of the CLP program. More correspondence will occur following the trip this August. As the US students are out of school until September, they will be pleased to come back and find their Indian counterparts wrote to them over the summer.

CLP: The Early Years in the USA (2008-2009)

In August and September of 2008, a team of three Riverside young adults will facilitate a one-week “leadership camp” for 25 students in Tamil Nadu, India. These students, the majority of which are young women, are hand-selected from a number of schools under the direction of the local micro finance institution, ASAGV. These students are selected on the basis of their academic record, their interest in seeking higher education opportunities, international dialogue, and community organizing.

Curriculum at the camp strives to provide opportunities for these selected students to (1) participate in activities that allow them to articulate their own hopes and dreams, (2) develop feasible plans for each student to make those ideas possible, and (3) create a leadership community amongst the students in coordination with ASAGV/UCR that will support that development.

Students will be utilizing digital media and project-based learning methods in an effort to create an international dialogue and leadership community between India and Riverside. In late July of 2008, prior to the leadership camp, UCR students will collaborate with UCR ARTSBlock Summer High School programs through director Reggie Woolery at the California Museum of Photography in Downtown Riverside. High school students in Riverside will spend one week addressing an inquiry question that seeks to de-construct East/West divisions in order that students will connect and relate to their fellow students across the globe in India. As a response to these questions and materials, Riverside students will develop a multimedia presentation that will be screened in India during the leadership camp.

The Indian teens will respond to this video using the same resources by filming and photographing their own response within in their own community and contexts within India. All digital productions will be developed into a dynamic, multimedia showing for fundraising purposes in November 2008 and shown at the CMP Digital Art Gallery in Downtown Riverside.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Little India Field Trip

July 30, 2008: UCR ARTSBlock Field Trip to Little India, Artesia, CA

On Wednesday, July 30th, UCR ARTSBlock participants took a field trip to Little India-- the second largest Indian community in the United States. Students were given the opportunity to dress up in smashingly-attractive traditional Indian clothing and indulge in South Indian thalis and mango yogurt. Students filmed and photographed their experience, paying close attention to the idea of "difference" and "similarity" in regards to multiculturalism within the United States. This excursion also provided students the opportunity to experience the "world" of the Indian students they will be collaborating and communicating with over the next year.