Heads up! Incoming Social Action Opportunities!

Found out about this a little bit late, but there is a great event on Saturday in Brooklyn, organized by Kids For A Better Future, a social action organization started and run by kids.  Every year, they identify a group of kids who need help and spend the year advocating and raising money for them.  This year, they are supporting children in Afghanistan through the organization Women for Afghan Women, and their annual walkathon to raise money is Saturday, March 9th at 12:30, meeting at Prospect Park at the Park Drive Loop at 9th street.  You can download sponsorship forms and posters from their website.  I think we'll be there, and will try to raise a bit of money in advance.  It's a great cause and a great organization.  In the fall, we participated in Girls Read for Girls, a youth-organized readathon in honor of Malala Yousafzai, which raised money for girls education in Pakistan, and heard from some of the staff at WAW about the challenges facing women and girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the organization's work there.

Also on the horizon: on March 21st, New York Voices Against Gun Violence, a broad coalition that includes Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, Doctors for America and many other groups are organizing a major rally in support of state and federal legislation to reduce gun violence, and in particular to support the New York SAFE Act, New York's landmark legislation limiting the sale of assault weapons, high capacity magazines, and requiring background checks for all gun sales.  The rally will take place at 4:30 p.m., at the Harlem State Office Building, 163 West 125th street.  Follow/like this page on Facebook to find out more.  Having gotten a lot of out of attending the One Million Moms march over the Brooklyn Bridge on MLK Day this year, I'm hoping my daughter and I can find a way to attend this - it's conveniently after school but not after work.

Other opportunities coming up:

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy has their first volunteer project of the year, on March 23, from 11 am to 3pm. Volunteers will help open up a tree nursery, host a community tree giveaway and create new native seed plots and assemble several bee hives.  The event is family friendly, officially for kids over 10, but it's worth inquiring if you can bring younger kids, because it sounds like fun!    The event is at the Salt Lot, 2 Second Ave.  You can register through New York Cares, but may also be able to contact the organization directly.

Also on March 23rd, from 10 am to 1 pm is the "March for the Earth" at the Queens Botanical Gardens.  The event celebrates the vernal equinox and helps the QBG get ready for the coming spring. There will be volunteering in the garden and then a festive march to the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park.  You do have to register in advance, info here.  By the way, as spring starts to get underway (really, it's coming, I promise), there are more and more planting and parks cleanup opportunities throughout the city.  A great way for kids to volunteer and also get out into the fresh air.

Other opportunities coming up?  Let me know.  I'll spread the word.

 

Mom, What's a Sequester?

It's hard not to get a sense of panic right now about the impending across the board budget cuts set to hit Friday if the Congress doesn't do what it's supposed to do, i.e., govern (make choices, make decisions, compromise extremist politics for the good of the whole).  Of course these days it can be hard to distinguish the actual reality of the crisis from within the multi-media hullaballoo that surrounds us, and it can be challenging to distinguish this fiscal crisis from the fiscal cliff we were just perched upon and the one set to hit later in the year (which is really the one from before, which we solved by pushing until later). How worried should we be?  Very worried, we are told.  Weren't we supposed to be worried that time before, but everything turned out okay?  Yes, but this time is different, and by the way we weren't really okay.  Oh, okay.

So now explain all of this to a 7 year-old.  Or should you try? There seems to be general agreement out there in parenting-advice-land that it is never to early to begin to explaining budgeting and saving and sound home economics to children, though there is some disagreement on how to do it.  I'm a bit daunted by the prospect of this, as I'm somewhat haphazard in my own budgeting, but I get why.  When does it make sense to explain national and international budget issues and economics (particular when the way we manage our national budget seems to run contrary to everything we're supposed to be telling our kids to do with their own money, for the most part).  Why not start early?  But the question is, how?

Since I'm not an economic policy whiz, I did what any parent would do: I googled it.  I found nothing particularly helpful about how to explain sequestration and it's impact to children, although I did find a lot on the impact of sequestration on children (bad, very bad).  Seems to me that if something is going to have a negative impact on a lot of children, we should be able to explain to them what it is and why it's going to happen.  It's only fair, and wise, especially if we want to raise children to take responsibility for themselves and others, and to be good fiscal stewards of their homes, communities, and the broader world community.

I did find some interesting resources on explaining economics to children, which I thought I'd share.  The quick fix explanations of economic issues (for instance here, on the fiscal cliff) I find somewhat unsatisfactory, I think because they remind me of most parenting books, which speak with absolute assurance about the absolute right way to do things, and make you feel rather sheepish about having to ask.  I prefer some of the broader resources, which offer a range of options, including books you might read to your kid otherwise and tips on how to use them to explain useful concepts.  Oddly (at least to me), the Federal Reserve has a page with links to lesson plans on how to use children's literature to explain economic concepts.  So, the lesson on one of my favorite books begins:

Little House in the Big Woods describes how the Ingalls family produced the goods they needed to survive while living in a log cabin far from their nearest neighbors. In this lesson, students will define the production function as the combination of inputs that results in outputs and will identify the inputs as human resources, capital resources, natural resources, and intermediate goods. 

Okay, maybe we won't start there, because I just might start to cry.

I like the Rutgers "EconKids" site, which also suggests ways for parents and teachers to use children's books to teach economic concepts to children, but provides a real diversity of topics and maybe less of a hard sell on the homo economicus stuff.  I particularly like the section on Text-to-World connections, which suggests books that will help kids relate ideas to economic, business, and financial situations they observe in the world around them.  There are some appealing books with stories about microfinance and the Grameen Bank (really!) and books about the Depression that explain unemployment and job loss.  If you are super motivated, you can read a research paper by Rutgers on teaching economics to children using stories.  All of this seems to be an extension of the dubious but time honored tradition of using children's literature to communicate moral stories, although it is oddly and sadly fitting that many of 'moral tales' can now be seen as being about money.

So, how are you explaining the mess we're in and how we got there to your children?

Coming Out of Hibernation

Haven't posted here recently...excuses are many, and uninteresting.  It is definitely much harder to think about volunteering and social action with kids during a Northeast winter, when it seems too damn cold to be creatively engaged with the world.  The bears may have it right.  I think I also hit a stretch of being a little weary of this project - not so much of finding ways to engage my own family in acts of community but of hoisting the banner for it, and trying to rally people behind me in my meager way.  People don't rally easily, I understand that, and I understand why (for all of the reasons that led me to start this blog in the first place), but still, it's hard not be disappointed, and think about giving the whole thing the toss.  But I'm not going to (inspirational music swells), at least not yet.  At some point, I will stumble into how to do this well, and that's worth plodding on for.

Here, by the way, are a few things I've learned so far.  I know that the kinds of activities that I'm looking for right now include those that:

• Engage kids and adults together: Younger kids learn through modeling and they feel valued (based on my anecdotal conversations) when they're engaged in something that adults also feel is important.  I felt less good about an activity we did recently that had the kids doing a craft project, ostensibly for a good purpose, that was not designed to engage adults at the same time.  It was nice, it was worthy, I don't think it registered as valuable to any of the kids who were there, any more than the bunny ears project they might have done at an Easter egg hunt.  I kicked myself for not realizing this in advance.  We have really enjoyed the things we've done together, whether that is digging at Added Value farm, chopping carrots at a soup kitchen, marching across the Brooklyn Bridge, or spreading compost at a community garden.  This doesn't mean I don't think integrating social justice and social responsibility into school curricula isn't incredibly important, just that the way we integrate these activities into the daily lives of families seems to make more sense when the activity isn't just "for kids." It's a 'show don't tell' moment in the work of families.  I also love the idea of kids developing their own activities for their peers (see below) but that's quite different from activities that may do little more than pay lip service to the real role kids want to play in our communities, even at a young age.

• Bring kids physically into communal space: We've done a couple things via internet, and I've posted a bunch of opportunities here that involve things you can do at home - 'shopping' for those affected by Hurricane Sandy at Amazon, 'buying' cows etc. from Heifer International.  These are great home-based activities, and I do think folks can actively engage kids in these projects in a way that's meaningful for them.  Still, I think opportunities to get out of the house and interact with others while engaging in acts of community (volunteerism, social action, protest, political engagement, holding the door for the next guy, etc) are invaluable.  I'm not a social media luddite and appreciate the immense power and value of virtual communities and new ways of organizing.  But I want my kid to see people, actual people, coming together to accomplish tasks of value to all of us.  The two-dimensional iteration can come later, once she knows what it stands in for.  Call me old-fashioned, I can take it.

• Let kids set the agenda:  So, somewhat in contrast to the first point up there, I'm really interested in projects that let kids build on their ideas of how to change the world and engage the adults in a supporting role.  This is a bit more challenging with younger kids and maybe more geared to the 9 and over set, but, looking forward, I'd like to understand how to do this well, and how to catalyze these kinds of activities.  I haven't been that great at it with my own daughter as yet, who is seven, and she's been a good sport about letting me pick out what we do and gamely going along for the ride.  But I'm going to try.  Watch this space, and send me your ideas.

What have you learned recently about engaging your kids in acts of community?  I'd love to hear about it.  Later this week will post some new volunteering opportunities.  Send me ideas or links if you've got 'em.

Coming up this weekend and beyond.....

This weekend the Brooklyn Public Library's Marcy Branch is asking kids to contribute a new book and make some bookmarks for kids who are still displaced by Hurricane Sandy.  The event is from 1:30 to 2:30 at 617 DeKalb Ave. at Nostrand Ave.  We are going to head over there, and I'm thinking I may bring a copy of Brave Irene, one of my favorite children's books, written by William Steig (check out this odd video of Al Gore - ???? - reading the book aloud).  It seems fitting to send a book about a little girl who screws her courage against a fierce storm to help her mother, a dress maker sick with a bad cold, by delivering a dress.  Come join us - it will be fun, warm, and the kids can look at books when they're done.

By the way, the Brooklyn Library has some volunteer opportunities for older kids - those 12 and up can be Book Buddies, help read to younger kids, plan events for children at the libraries, help out on other projects.  Kids who are 14 and up with tech skills can be Computer Coaches.

Some other ideas - if you can't make to Saturday's March on Washington for gun control (came up too quickly for me to organize a way down there) but want to be there in spirit, you can join the New Jersey chapter of One Million Moms for Gun Control for a rally in Jersey City from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.  I've written below about what a valuable experience the New York march and rally was for us on Martin Luther King Day.  If you weren't able to make it (and/or you live in New Jersey!), or are eager to make your voices heard again on this important issue, head on over to Jersey City.

And here's something else I found through New York Cares, a chance to work with Concrete Safari do some winter maintenance on their green spaces in East Harlem - there are two work days listed, one on February 2nd and one on February 9th, family friendly with 10 and up specified, but if you were interested and your kids are younger it's worth contacting them to see if you can join.  The group runs a leadership program for youth, promoting healthy living and stronger communities by creating and maintaining new green spaces in East Harlem.

Its cold out there - keep your brave Irenes bundled up!

With Solemn Duty and Awesome Joy....

I wanted to report back on our participation this Martin Luther King Day in a march and rally organized by One Million Moms for Gun Control to press the urgent case for federal gun control legislation.  Last weekend, we gathered with others in Brooklyn to make signs and I spent last night wrestling with duct tape and cardboard tubing to get the sign stable and sufficiently nonlethal for the NYPD.  The morning dawned about ten degrees colder than it has been, but it was not yet snowing - perfect demonstration weather!  I piled the layers on both of us, grabbed the sign, the snacks (forgot the water! damn), the metro cards, and headed off to meet other friends and kids on the C train to the assembly point for the march across the bridge.  A lot of kids, a lot of adults, some great homemade signs, some well-branded signs from One Million Moms, a bloody cold breeze off the East River.

It was a bit tricky with all the kids to hit the right note - they were excited and there was an air of parade festivity with the banners and signs, and but the subject is a serious one, and among the marchers were those who had lost loved ones to gun violence.  In the end, it made sense to let them take it all in however they wanted, to get the hang of it.  They posed for pictures, thrust signs in the air, tried a bit to hear the speakers, and then bounced around waiting to go.

The procession over the Brooklyn Bridge began slowly (there were strollers to be hoisted up the narrow steps), but spread out over the bridge.  As we hit the Manhattan side of the bridge, the kids could wave their signs down at the cars on the entrance ramp and provoke some supportive (we hope) honking, which was satisfying.  By the time we looped around Chambers St., the troops were starting to wane and, well, whine.  Massed in narrow but thick crowd stretching back from the podium at the foot of the sidewalk bordering City Hall park, stamping cold feet and propping signs on our shoulders, we tried not to lose the momentum totally.  Suddenly, though, the sound system switched on loud and the speakers - Jackie Rowe-Adams from Harlem SAVE in particular - hit the cadence of a revival and an empowered call to action and the kids were transfixed, wide-eyed, thrilled, as if suddenly, in some way, they got it, got what it means to speak out, to call others to action, to take a stand.  I may be over-interpreting this, and will check back in with my child and the others to see how and what sunk in, but it still felt, in that moment exactly right, exactly why I wanted my daughter to be there.

With a quick stop off for some cocoa, we made it back to Brooklyn in time to catch most of President Obama's second inaugural address.  I made three kids sit there with me and watch, and I hope some of it sank in.  There was much in the speech that I admired - let the pundits tear it apart and parse the intimations of future policies.  On that first listen, I tried to keep us attuned to its big ideas, and though I don't go in for the trappings of patriotism, I liked it as an expression of American populist idealism, and grabbed this for the kids and their march today:

"You and I, as citizens, have the power to set this country’s course.

"You and I, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debates of our time – not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals.

"Let each of us now embrace, with solemn duty and awesome joy, what is our lasting birthright. With common effort and common purpose, with passion and dedication, let us answer the call of history, and carry into an uncertain future that precious light of freedom. "

January 26th: Books and Bookmarks for kids displaced by Hurricane Sandy

Raising the Village is happy to support the Brooklyn Public Library's upcoming event for kids at the Marcy Branch in Bedford Stuyvesant.  Kids should bring a new book, perhaps a favorite, to give to the kids who are still displaced by the hurricane and living in shelters.  They will have the chance to make some bookmarks to go with the books.  It's a little project, but a sweet one, and one that will make the day of the child who receives the book and the homemade bookmark and the child who gets to contribute.                        Make a bookmark for a              child displaced by Hurricane Sandy  Recommended for ages 6-12

Saturday, January 26, 2013  1:30-2:30PM Marcy Library Bookmarks, along with new books, will be donated to families living in temporary housing due to the recent hurricane. All materials will be provided. Marcy Library 617 Dekalb Ave. 718.935.0032 www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org

One Million Moms (+ Kids!!!!)

 We had a great time today making posters for the Rally for Gun Control at City Hall on Martin Luther King Day, organized by the wonderful Brooklyn Chapter of One Million Moms for Gun Control and other New York City chapters. The event will begin at 9:15 at Cadman Plaza Park, followed by a march over the Brooklyn Bridge and the rally in front of City Hall Park at 10:30.

A collection of adults and children gathered in Clinton Hill to make posters, see each other face-to-face after tons of emails back and forth, and begin to talk a bit about what comes next.  Mostly, though, it was about the posters, and it was a good opportunity for the kids to work side by side with the adults.  Rally posters are about the big ideas, not the policy details, and as such they are a reasonably decent way to engage kids, to begin to talk about issues that matter to their parents and affect their community.  This is particularly true with an issue like gun control, where it's important to walk the line between engaging younger kids honestly on an important issue without scaring them.  The posters keep the message simple and true, and we can't ask much more of our communication with kids.