Awesome Foundation - Proyectos

Newmarket – Back to School Backpacks - WCYR

2018-07-19T00:00:00Z

The Women's Centre of York Region's Back to School Backpack drive is in its 11th year. The Backpack drive supports women attending programs or counselling at the centre who are returning to school, as well as their children. Many of our clients are low and moderate income residents of York Region whoa re mothers, sisters, daughters, aunts, friends, neighbors , and coworkers. The majority of women that seek our help are women who have experienced violence, have limited income, have low participation rates in the labour market, or experience other barriers that make it difficult for them to contribute to their communities and live their lives to their fullest potential. Many of our clients struggle meaking ends meet and often cannot afford back to school items. Our Back to School Backpack program ensures that all children and adult learners hav access to the tools they need to be successful in school, and ensure that they start their year with dignity. Each age appropriate backpack is estimated to cost about $40. We begin taking names and ages for the program in late June and distribute the backpacks in late August. In 2017, we were able to0 distribute 80 backpacks to 9 clients and 71 children as follows: 9 for JK/SK; 17 in grades 1-3; 20 in grades 4-6; 12 in grade 7-8; and 13 in grades 9-12

Yerevan – Պատահական Անցորդ. «Ձեռքի ուժը»

2018-07-19T00:00:00Z

Որքան էլ մեզ հետաքրքրում են անծանոթները, մենք երբեք նրանց հարցեր չենք տալիս և փորձում ենք չխոսել նրանց հետ՝ սահմանափակելով շփումը միայն հայացքների փոխանակմամբ: Այնինչ, շատ հնարավոր է, որ պատահական անցորդը լինի մեր գաղափարակիրը, մեր ապագա գործընկերը, երկրորդ կեսը, լավ ընկերը կամ ուղղակի հերթական պատահական անցորդը, ում հետ կարող ես անցկացնել կյանքիդ ամենահիշվող 1 րոպեն, ժամը, օրը... «Ձեռքի ուժը» նախագծի թիմով կենտրոնական սրճարաններին կից կտեղադրենք պատեր՝ 2 փորագրված ձեռքերով (նկարում տպագրված տարբերակն է), ձեռքերի միջով կանցնի LED լույս, որը կլուսացնի մութ ժամերի զրույցներն ու հանդիպումները և ձեռքերին շրջապատող տախտակը: Մեր ծրագրի շնորհիվ պատահական անցորդները, տեղադրելով իրենց ձեռքերը հատուկ նախատեսված վայրում, կունենան հնարավորություն նոր ծանոթություններ ստեղծել, կիսվել օրվա դրական և բացասական լիցքերով, ստանալ խորհուրդներ անծանոթներից և վայելել հանդիպման րոպեները կից սրճարանում: Շրջապատող տախտակի վրա մարդիկ կգրեն իրենց մտքերը և այն մարդկանց անունները, ում հետ ծանոթացել են: Գրառումը կարող է ունենալ հետևյալ տեսքը. <<Այստեղ ես ծանոթացել եմ Արինա Մկրտչյանի հետ>>: Հարթակը միշտ կյանքով լի պահելու համար պարբերաբար կկազմակերպվեն միջոցառումներ և այդ օրը մարդիկ հնարավորություն կունենան ծանոթանալ և խոսել օրվա հյուրի հետ՝ ձեռքերը դնելով պատին: Մեր նոր Հայաստանում վստահ ենք որպես հյուր կարող ենք տեսնել ամենաբազում զբաղմունքների և մասնագիտությունների տեր մարդկանց՝ սկսած վարչապետից մինչ գործարար և արվեստագետ: Հանդիպումների արդյունքը կարող է լինել նոր ծրագրերի ստեղծում, կապերի հաստատում կամ ուղղակի զրույց բանիմաց մարդկանց հետ:

Buffalo, NY (Inactivo) – Feed Buffalo Little Pantries

2018-07-18T00:00:00Z

I’ll be launching a new pantry this summer (like June 2018)! In effort to encourage the community to support one another, Feed Buffalo will lead a Little Pantry installation project. Our goal is to have 25 Little pantries throughout Buffalo by the end of August 2018. The pantries will hold non-perishable items and toiletries (toilet tissue, toothbrushes/toothpaste, feminine items) & baby items (diapers, baby wipes). The idea is that anyone can donate to the pantry and/or take an item from the pantry whenever needed.

Newcastle – The Share Shop - A Library of Things

2018-07-18T00:00:00Z

Our mission is to create a vast library of useful things in a friendly space where the community can borrow items and learn how to use them. We want people spending less money on things they don’t necessarily need to own (and the storage associated with those things), we want to reduce waste eventuating from the disposal of unwanted items and reduce our carbon footprint by enabling access to local resources near our homes and workplaces. Some examples of the type of things we already have in our inventory including camping equipment like tents and camp chairs, party equipment like a PA and chocolate fountain and tools for DIY like jigsaws, drills and post hole diggers. Sharing is also an exciting way for the community to come together. Sharing provides people with the opportunity to try new things and learn new skills with minimal outlay. The Share Shop will be co-located with other community groups it is expected the location will grow to be a vibrant community hub. The Share Shop is a not-for-profit, incorporated association run by volunteers. We have a core team of eight with a broad network of community-minded people pitching in on various aspects to help us get going. All the things in our inventory to date have been donated by members of the local community. We have set up our inventory and member management system and our website, we have over 100 things in our inventory and we have an agreement in place to occupy a space in Clyde St, Hamilton North. Annual membership is set at $52 a we want the Share Shop to be accessible for all. We also plan to looking into sponsored memberships through charitable partners once we're up and running. At the moment we are building our inventory, taking pre-purchased membership through a crowdfunding campaign (https://chuffed.org/project/theshareshop) and documenting core processes with the intention of opening the doors at the end of July.

Philadelphia, PA – Love Starts Here.

2018-07-18T00:00:00Z

Love starts here. Within our hearts, our soul, our spirit. If you can't love yourself, how in the heck are you gonna love somebody else? I want to put together an art show that is a safe space for featured artists who bring awareness to mental health and LGBT+ issues within the Black community. I have a mission to shine light on the importance of self-love and showing artists that collaborating is more progressive than competing. I want everyone involved to feel empowered and to gain a bit of insight into how artists use their work to cope and elevate. I have a team of artists, performers, and vendors that are willing to help me create my own show as I've only been a part of other people's events. It will be a collaborative event where artists are not only showcasing their work but engaging with the attendees to help them in expressing themselves. There will be 3 main sections for interactive displays such as live painting on a large shared canvas, jumbo coloring sheets created by the artists with markers for attendees to color in, and a self-portrait photo booth. I want to influence the community to practice love for self through art because the more I expressed myself and refined the results, the more I developed my skill and clarified my path. Hopefully this event can inspire and uplift people to feel more confident in their natural talents and potential growth.

Philadelphia, PA – Impact Workshop at Riverside Correctional Facility

2018-07-18T00:00:00Z

Starting on July 23rd, we will begin a two-week performing arts workshop with women at Riverside Correctional Facility (RCF). RCF is one of six jails in the Philadelphia Prison System. Our workshops empower communities of marginalized, incarcerated women in this jail and many others by expanding their pro-social skills (particularly confidence, empathy, resilience, and leadership) and faith. This creates communities of courageous leaders amongst the women who participate, the effects of which ripple out to the rest of the facility and, after they are released, into their home communities. In each workshop, professional artists collaborate with 30 women from the correctional facility for two-weeks to develop a 45-minute performance of dance, music, drama, and spoken word. This performance presents an uplifting message of hope to other incarcerated people in the facility. During the workshop, SLM staff and artists work with inmates for seven hours per day, five days per week, in rehearsals, community building activities, reflection, and small group discussions on faith and self-awareness. All choreography, theater sketches, and spoken word pieces are original work, crafted by the participants from their own life experiences in a way that will powerfully touch their peers in the audience. The two culminating performances take place on SLM’s full stage, set up in the facility’s gym, complete with a professional lighting plot, sound, and video projection. Each performance is accompanied by a professional band and is followed by an interactive feedback session between participating inmates and audience members. This workshop is one of six workshops we are holding in 2018, and will be our fourth annual Impact Workshop at Riverside Correctional Facility.

Chicago, IL – An Arm and a Leg:Podcast re: Cost of Health Care

2018-07-18T00:00:00Z

The cost of health care shapes people’s lives: The jobs they’re afraid to leave, the businesses they don’t start, not to mention their health. It keeps getting more expensive, and it’s confusing— and scary— to face alone. An Arm and a Leg will pull back the curtain to show how the dark machinery works. And that should be… fascinating. Surprising. Entertaining. (That’s how a nerd like me sees it.) It should also be kind of empowering. Occasionally, maybe even useful. Also, consoling, as in: None of us is in this alone. On this show, all us blind people will put our hands on this elephant and ask, WTF IS GOING ON? And what can we do—individually, collectively—to help ourselves? Our 20-minute episodes will include: • Root causes of everyday nightmares: A guy gets a knee brace from a local hospital, and then the bill: $1,400. Google says he could’ve gotten the same brace for $150. We investigate: What the heck? • Personal stories: In one woman’s epic quest to save her family from sky-high medical bills, she makes heroic sacrifices… and history. • Expert findings: Some terrific reporters and researchers have already done GREAT digging here. We’ll have them on, to unpack what they’ve found. Interesting hacks: • Renaissance Fair workers often have trouble getting good health insurance, so they’ve improvised a creative alternative. (I recently did a brief version of this story, produced with Planet Money, for NPR; there’s more to tell.) •Experiments, with your help: In her book An American Sickness, journalist Elisabeth Rosenthal offers some prescriptions for “taking back” health care— by becoming better-informed, more-assertive consumers. Honestly, they sound TOUGH: tricky, awkward, and uncertain. Let’s try them, record the results, and compare notes.

Cass Clay – Harbor Health Clinic/Diversity Training

2018-07-17T00:00:00Z

We've put together a non-profit clinic that allows people to be seen for Gender Affirming Hormone Therapy using an Informed Consent model, in essence, we do not ask that our patients see a therapist/counselor prior to prescribing hormone therapy. Our provider lays out the pros and cons of hormone therapy to each patient and provides an in-depth analysis for the reactions that will occur while on hormone therapy, and then we let the patient decide what is right for them. We are looking to expand our model across the state, as well as via tele-health. We also offer diversity trainings for community members and organizations wanting to know more about the LGBTQ+ cultures. Our training helps identify ways to be more supportive and better allies, and acknowledging ways that they're already doing that.

Pittsburgh, PA – The Busnegie Museum of Art

2018-07-16T00:00:00Z

I am creating a temporary art museum in the two bus shelters outside the Carnegie Museum of Art during the Carnegie International Exhibition (which starts in October and only happens once every three years), featuring the work of Pittsburgh artists. One of the target audiences is the arts professionals who will be attending the Carnegie International in the hopes that this will provide exposure for the local artists involved and propel their careers. The second target audience is people who do not have a relationship with art and rarely (if ever) attend museums or galleries. By bringing art to them in the very egalitarian space of bus shelters, the Busnegie seeks to remedy the (often correct) perception that art is elitist and stuffy. To further promote the arts to those who are economically disadvantaged, the Busnegie will publicize the little known fact that people who receive government services and have an ACCESS card can attend the Carnegie with up to 7 other people for just $1 each.

Awesome Without Borders (Inactivo) – CodeBuddies

2018-07-16T00:00:00Z

CodeBuddies is a free, open-sourced project and Slack community that enables an international community of over 4000 independent coders to improve their coding skills via peer-to-peer organized study groups and remote study hangouts. The platform was built from scratch entirely by volunteers, and lets anyone start a study group or schedule a virtual hangout to learn together, with the premise that getting coding help and getting access to study partners shouldn't be limited by where one lives or by one's ability to commute to a tech meetup after work.

Birmingham, AL (Inactivo) – YWCA Summer Adventures in Learning (SAIL)

2018-07-16T00:00:00Z

The YWCA’s After-School Enrichment Program (ASEP) serves school-age children living in local homeless shelters during the academic year. In the summer months, the ASEP Program serves as a site for our Summer Adventures in Learning program (SAIL) which provides academic and enrichment activities for approximately 50 children from 7:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. during the work week. During the summer children participate in hands-on academics targeting the summer slump in areas of reading, math and science. They are also given the chance to participate in typical summer experiences such as field trips to local museums, Railroad Park, movies, swimming, skating, Desoto Caverns, and more. These summer experiences offer homeless and at-risk children access to opportunities for physical growth, cognitive development, socialization and integration that they would otherwise be denied. SAIL students participate in scientifically research based assessment that measure Literacy, Mathematics, and Reading aptitude. At-risk students often miss important early reading instruction providing a foundation for continued success in school. We focus on phonemic awareness, the alphabetic principle, comprehension, exposure to wide genre of literature. Classrooms are print rich with books, magazines, multimedia software, and newspapers. Last year, students gained one month in reading comprehension and two months in math ability. Summer is usually considered the summer slide when students are not focused on academics and lose grade level competencies if not engaged in academic enrichment activities. The YWCA collaborates with dozens of organizations including Red Mountain Theater, Children’s Theater, Hand in Paw, The Civil Rights Institute, Southern Museum of Flight, The McWane Center, UAB School of Education and more to increase our capacity to provide the experiences that all children should have despite their family financial circumstances.

Minas Gerais (Inactivo) – Fundos Rotativos Solidários

2018-07-16T00:00:00Z

O programa visa criar um Fundo Rotativo Solidário com características de uma poupança social. O processo de criação do fundo é divido em três partes: 1. Rodada de Conversa; 2. Formação sobre Economia Solidária e Social; e 3. Realização da Assembleia Geral. Objetivo do Programa: Buscamos promover práticas para permanência e sucessão do jovem no campo: (i) Jovem gerando sua própria renda; (ii) Filiação de jovens na cooperativas da economia solidária e agricultura familiar; (iii) Participação juvenil ativa nas comunidades; (iv) Programa baseado na formação em economia solidária e social. Público Alvo: Jovens na faixa etária de 16* a 29 anos, da agricultura familiar, com relações de parentesco ou não com produtores rurais. Momento 1: Momento de sensibilização da cooperativa, mapeando a possibilidade da criação do fundos e possíveis jovens participantes. Dividindo nas seguintes etapas: (i) Apresentação do programa; (ii) Reunião entre Trias, cooperativas e jovens interessados; (iii) Criação do grupo de trabalho; Momento 2: Formação sobre Economia Solidária e Social. Processo de formação sobre economia solidária e social para o grupo. O processo de formação tem uma carga horária de 6 (seis) – 8 (oito) horas e será divido nos seguintes módulos: - Aspectos da Economia Solidária e Social; - O que são fundos rotativos solidários e como funcionam; - Educação financeira; Momento 3: Após as etapas anteriores, o grupo já está com a decisão formada: a criação de um fundo rotativo solidário. Para criação do fundo, é necessário a realização da Assembleia Geral de criação, neste momento serão abordados os temas: - Regimento Interno; - Regras e normas do fundo; - Criação do grupo gestor. Com a iniciativa da criação de fundos solidários, o Trias juntamente com seus parceiros busca aumentar a participação juvenil nos empreendimentos da Agricultura Familiar com o foco principal na geração de renda dos jovens.

Pittsburgh, PA – Giant Puppet Dance Club

2018-07-16T00:00:00Z

Giant Puppet Dance Club is Pittsburgh Puppetmaker Cheryl Capezzuti's latest experiment in community connection, laughter and delight. Through this project she invites people to put on a giant puppet and join a pop-up Zumba dance class in a Pittsburgh park or other public place. Capezzuti currently has about 200 giant puppets, including a set of 10 super-lightweight puppets designed for dancing. Through this project she will work with local organizations that host events in parks and other public places to create Giant Puppet Dance Club experiences during their already planned events. For example, on the Braddock Community Day, Capezzuti has already talked to the Braddock Library about using their Zumba teacher and existing puppet collection to stage a Giant Puppet Dance Club experience in the park on Saturday, August 11. The only barrier to the success of this plan is a little bit of $$ to pay our dance leaders. Events that I would like to connect with include: Braddock Community Day Brighton Heights Halloween Festival An Open Streets event Allegheny Commons Farmer's Market Gallery Crawl in downtown Pittsburgh Puppetry Guild of Pittsburgh Puppet Slam

Oakland, CA (Inactivo) – The Pan African Festival (PAF)

2018-07-12T00:00:00Z

Pan African Festival is a free annual one-day festival that aims to, 1.) strengthen the Bay Area Pan African community through arts and culture, 2.) reclaim public space, and 3.) bring residents together to celebrate. More than a festival, PAF is a cultural resistance tool developed to build bridges between long time Black Oaklanders and new African immigrants. PAF utilizes a five-pronged strategy to build the power of attendees. The first strategy is to host an Elder Zone that satisfies PAFs theory of change that creating a site for scholarship which puts elders in direct contact with youth will transfer history, enhance understanding and critical thinking skills, and help build a racial justice fight overtime. Secondly, the Artist Zone open to all regardless of experience, increases people's visual story-telling competency-another method that builds voice, and transfers histories and legacies. It is premised on the idea that the community's visual surroundings directly shape residents’ thinking and behavior. Therefore, the creation of (mural) arts featuring a radical message/images fosters a sense of self-determination. Thirdly, the Youth Games Zone engages children and youth in team building activities that promote a restorative justice philosophy for their day-day lives. Fourthly, the Workshop Zone threads people's lives beyond boundaries, borders and blocks to deliver key information and resources. Lastly, the Main Performance Stage showcases artists and singers from across the diaspora in order to highlight the diverse Pan African experiences.

San Francisco, CA – Ice on Ice: an Ice Capade!

2018-07-11T00:00:00Z

A night of performance art pieces and ephemeral sculptures on ice. Think something like Einstein on the Beach meets the Disney Ice Capades, curated by Marina Abromovic. It would be weird, spectacular, and free. Amateur hockey players, up-and-coming figure skaters, and other ice skating stars will interpret the rapid-fire series of acts and actions that make up the night. Each will be performed in a sequence of 60 acts in 60 minutes with the giant hockey scoreboard buzzing and counting down time. As people filter into the dark arena, a large block of ice would be kicked in and out, through a single spotlight in the center of the ice rink. Eventually, as audience members opt to either file onto the ice themselves with just their tennis shoes or sit in the stands, the spotlight expands to a hockey goalie in his full protective gear, frantically practicing Buster Keaton falls, tumbling to the ice like a collapsible doll. Other acts include whimsical figure skating (the Bay Area is home to a number of young, world-class, Olympic hopefuls); a tragi-comedy farce of a man pinning his laundry to a long, moving clothesline; the echo of drums and wooden blocks in the massive, resonant arena; the audience shuffling around the edge of the rink as performers glide past them on skates, passing a giant 8’x8’ concrete cube back and forth across the ice. It’s going to be weird, wonderful, and free to the public. Join us November 2nd, 2018 at the Oakland Ice Center! http://amfuller.com/ice-capade/

San Francisco, CA – Whose World Is This

2018-07-11T00:00:00Z

As more conversations centered around anti-immigration is on the rise, now is the perfect opportunity to document immigrant narratives for future generations, a pro-immigration dialogue. We are tired of others telling our story which is why we should encourage all immigrants AND children of immigrants to take responsibility and document these stories. This initiative is to highlight these narratives through a book as a collection of stories/statements and a video series. This project specifically would work with artists, influencers, educators, small business owners, organizations, and regular day people. With the book, it is meant to bridge the successes and struggles of members from various communities through word and imagery. Usually, these struggles/successes aren’t acknowledged, and doing so would allow insight into the differences and similarities we have with one another. The video series will be individualized interviews(up to 5 minutes) of cinematic video. The website would include more info about each piece, more content, and where to find those who contributed to the collection.

Seattle, WA – Upper Skagit Library Bikemobile

2018-07-10T00:00:00Z

Why a book-bike-mobile would be an awesome addition to the Upper Skagit Library District A book-bike-mobile would greatly improve Upper Skagit Library District’s (USLD) ability to provide library services to the close (yet so far away) residents of eastern Skagit County. It would allow us to reach families who find it difficult to visit the library due to poor public transportation and/or physical or financial limitations. USLD opened its doors in 2005. The library, located in the small town of Concrete, WA, serves the 5,000 residents of the eastern “upriver” portion of Skagit County. While the area abounds in farms, forests, and natural splendor, it is also home to many at-risk kids and households facing difficult economic challenges. We have learned from talking to community members and patron surveys that distance and cost to travel to the library during open hours prevents many people from visiting the library as often as they would like. For example, there is no bus service to two of the area’s most economically challenged neighborhoods, Cedar Grove and Cape Horn. These neighborhoods, only 4.5 and 6 miles away from the library respectively, are home to numerous mobility and economically challenged families. Some of our patrons go to great lengths in order to visit the library; many are not able to make the trip. A book-bike-mobile would make it possible for us to reach out to these neighborhoods with consistent summer book visits and programs. A book-bike-mobile would also enhance the Upper Skagit Library’s partnership with the Concrete School District on various projects and programs. One is the Concrete Summer Learning Adventure (CSLA). CSLA’s mission is to encourage learning and prevent the “summer learning slide.” Bringing the library book-bike-mobile to summer camp at the school would be a natural and exciting partnership opportunity.

Miami, FL – PhotoGetherness

2018-07-09T00:00:00Z

The day we took my Aunt Pam to live at an assisted living facility was one of the saddest days of my life. I couldn’t believe we were leaving her with a bunch of strangers in this complex that was supposed to be her new “home.” True, it had the appearance of a home in that it had a kitchen and a living room, 5 bedrooms and a couple bathrooms. True, they called themselves a “family.” But, there was one huge thing missing: a sense of home and belonging. I left her facility thinking how sad it was that Pam’s new home had no pictures up on the walls. It felt barren, not like the home or family that my loving Aunt had grown up in. Then I realized that I could help Pam transition by actually taking pictures of her and her new home family. This is how I started PhotoGetherness, a non-profit endeavor to help bring a sense of home to group homes in South Florida. Research shows that photographs are a powerful tool in establishing a real sense of belonging, and they help make a house look and feel like a home. My goal is to take, develop, frame and hang pictures in Pam's home and throughout all the units in her facility. Furthermore, I want create a family photo calendar with group photographs and individual photographs for the home to have and use and to send copies to the other family members. I have already started this project. I have taken photos of Pam’s immediate villa and am in the process of printing and framing and putting the calendar together. Once I am successful in Pam’s villa, I hope to move on to the other villas to help create this sense of belonging at Sunrise, a complex of 8 villas (with approximately 80 residents) in Miami. Once done there, I will move on to other assisted living facilities in Miami. As such, I have incorporated PhotoGetherness as a nonprofit so that I can seek to raise funds in other ways as well.

Miami, FL – MIAMIGIRL-Empathy training for police officers

2018-07-09T00:00:00Z

Violence and death by police shooting are overwhelmingly associated with mentally ill persons. Likewise, mental illness training may be insufficient or ineffective for officers that routinely encounter the mentally ill while on duty. Given the high stigma associated with mental illness and the lack of understanding and empathy towards the disease, empathy training with police officers and family caregivers could influence police-related violence and deaths by building community engagement and constructing a deeper understanding of the mentally ill person. To solve this problem, I will implement an innovative project aimed at reshaping attitudes towards mentally ill persons. Police officers will participate in an auditory hallucination simulation during roll call. First, police officers will receive a pre-briefing of the exercise. Next, police officers will listen to “Pat Deegan’s Hearing Voices” simulation for 45 minutes while completing: a) an origami puzzle, b) a number crossword puzzle, c) an employment application, and d) a mental status exam. Then, police officers will watch video-taped testimonials of a mentally ill person and a family caregiver that describe their lived experience of being taken into custody for transport to a mental health facility. Finally, the facilitator will debrief police officers and data will be collected to determine: a) if the objectives were met, b) their feelings about the activity, c) lessons learned, and d) how this training may affect future encounters with mentally ill persons. Within six months of completion, the results of this pilot project will be shared with local police departments, policy makers and mental health stakeholders to suggest improvements in current practice. From these meetings I plan wider dissemination of the results through professional journals and national conferences. Ultimately, the results will be used to justify the project’s significance when requesting larger subsequent funding.

Miami, FL – BAM! Black Architects in the Making

2018-07-09T00:00:00Z

Because architects of color are woefully underrepresented in the creative industries, The Miami Center for Architecture & Design (MCAD) seeks to work with young people in under served neighborhoods to foster an interest in pursuing careers in architecture and other creative industries. More than a career talk, BAM! is a creative series of hands-on labs where students create a computer-generated model and display images of these models at the end of the workshop. The workshops will also feature interactive presentations by architects and architectural students of color. Additionally, we are working to develop “Design & Build” programs much like the one we created for the New Educational Paradigm School in Miami. We were invited to share our mission—introducing children in under served neighborhoods to the profession of Architecture. For the pilot project, our volunteers worked with the students to design and construct raised planter beds as part of a greater focus on the science of agriculture. We partner with the Miami Chapter of the American Institute of Architects to bring this program to our community.

Awesome Without Borders (Inactivo) – Choosing Our Roots

2018-07-09T00:00:00Z

Choosing Our Roots is a new (and awesome!) grassroots nonprofit devoted to safely housing queer youth in Alaska. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth experience homelessness at disproportionately high rates, and while there are other organizations dedicated to serving homeless and marginally housed Alaskans, there are none that focus on the significant and unique needs of LGBTQ youth. Choosing Our Roots (COR) has emerged from that gap as a youth-led and queer-led initiative that is participant centered, culturally relevant, trauma informed, and chock-full of awesome. Our existence responds to a deep and persistent need for services that center the safety, needs, and potential of LGBTQ youth in our communities. COR will begin offering services in 2018, working with homeless and marginally housed youth (ages 13-24) who identify as LGBTQ. Using a host home model that has been successfully established and refined in many other communities, COR will provide participants with more than just shelter: our services will empower participants to build supportive, long-term relationships with host families while growing into confident, competent young adults who know their own value and promise. To this end, COR will offer extensive training and ongoing support for host families, comprehensive case management for youth participants, and supports and training to families of origin, while coordinating with community partners to provide wraparound services. COR is currently developing services in the Anchorage and Mat-Su regions of Alaska with a strategic plan to expand to hub communities throughout Alaska by 2023. Our vision is that all queer Alaskan youth have access to safe homes and supportive communities, thus allowing them to thrive and to fulfill their own potential for awesomeness.

Newburgh, NY – LODGER: A Culinary Workshop for youth

2018-07-09T00:00:00Z

Lodger will launch a six-week workshop that connects Newburgh's youth to local food initiatives, curriculum-based learning kitchen, and the operation of a pop-up restaurant. Based on an earlier program in Detroit, Lodger will culminate in a pop-up restaurant. Students will become familiar with back-of-house, front-of-house, and the inner workings of set-up and design responsibilities. The pop-up graduation restaurant will be hosted at Lodger 188 Liberty St. The public will be invited as well as family members and friends. We will welcome educators, artists, authors, farmers and chefs to partner in the play of ideas and the creation of innovative events and convivial gatherings. Please join us for an evening of celebration on August 25th at 7pm Stay tuned for the pop-up restaurant in October/November. #lodgernewburgh

Vegan (Inactivo) – Walking the Daises

2018-07-09T00:00:00Z

Walking the Daisies (WTD) is annual 2-day hike event to the music festival Rocking the Daisies in Cape Town. The event has become a platform to create a fun, creative and interactive space for raising awareness, education & support around issues such as global warming and environmental degradation, while taking into account social issues such as unemployment, poverty and inequality that prevail in the South African context. WTD is now a widely acclaimed event that supplements the Rocking the Daisies festival’s aim to reduce their carbon footprint, create and promote positive environmental action, facilitate conscious dialog and raise awareness about the social and environmental challenges. Every year WTD takes approximately 150 walkers through an experience involving environmental education, beach-cleanups, plastic campaign awareness, guest speakers, yoga and meditation and community engagement and upliftment projects. The WTD event is zero-waste, with all waste being recycled, ecobricked or turned into compost. A big component of the walk is that all food served is vegan and vegetarian.

Adelaide – Wood burning art

2018-07-06T00:00:00Z

With a Soldering Iron I burn pictures into 3 ply pine board. Currently I am only doing them as gifts and for the 2018 NAIDOC Poster award ( Lady picture attached). I was unsuccessful with it this year. I am doing the art in my spare time mainly after work at night. I am hoping to sell the art and fund a gardening project I am also working on. I am intending on making better our vegetable patch and fruit orchard by initially Kangaroo proofing the areas and then incorporating more raised beds and fruit tress. Also I intend to build a fruit and veg stall out the front of our house with a sign that reads as follows: "Please leave a donation if you can, if not, take what you need and leave some for others. Maybe you can make a donation next time".

Singapore – The Aroid Flora of Sibuyan Island, Philippines

2018-07-05T00:00:00Z

My project is about creating a photo-encyclopedia of the different kinds of taro species and its relatives. This book will be comprehensive but easy to understand; English and Filipino translations will be provided for better communication. It will serve as a guide book for the locals, protected area managers, students, professors, and students. The book will showcase about the economic uses of the taro family, such as which taro relatives are poisonous, which part of the plant could be eaten, potential food substitute in case of food shortage, and some awesome plants of the island. Copies will be given to the different municipalities of Sibuyan Island. The book will also showcase the different endemic plants and species of the island, the intact virgin forests, and some of the cleanest rivers of the island - Thus, the area was referred to as the "Galapagos of Asia" by scientists. Aside from the book, I will be imparting my knowledge by providing a capacity building activity. It will be about the importance of plant conservation in different communities of the island. Proper collection of plants, preservation techniques, and storage/maintenance will also be included. If possible, I would like to initiate the awesome idea of making a museum. I will start creating the botany section of the museum and I will invite different experts like mammalogists, entomologists, and herpetologists to pursue with this initial phase of the project.

Awesome Without Borders (Inactivo) – Saving Lakota Language Off the Rez

2018-07-02T00:00:00Z

All Native languages, including Lakota, are in serious danger of extinction. We lose speakers, especially fluent speakers, daily. Spoken language speaks the soul of a People & their culture. We have a free class in Bismarck, ND that meets every Wednesday in the Veterans Memorial Public Library. Our teacher is a certified Lakota Language Teacher. We gift him for his help. We need books & other such materials - the dictionary alone is $50 + tax. The workbooks we need are about $40 each. CDs of conversational Lakota are similarly expensive. Natives in the US have the worst economic statistics of all groups. We simply can't afford to buy the books & supplies we need to successfully teach our class. Some of us get government assistance to live; others work at low-wage jobs. I am self-employed but spend a great amount of time helping my People at no cost to anyone (except me). Currently, we make scans or photocopies of my books or library books to pass around. This is not a good way to proceed with this vital work, because there aren't enough books for everyone to have one. Much is lost without the entire book to refer to, when someone is learning. Cultures are only truly expressed through their languages. Each language expresses that culture's soul. Most of any culture cannot be expressed accurately in another language. It is vital to preserve our Native languages. Once the spoken language is gone, it cannot be recreated. This is deadly to the cultures and to the people of each Native culture. Our Indigenous holocaust has continued for over 500 years. This money would help us help more people to speak - & now, to read & write - Lakota, OFF the Rez. Despite laws that say our Native languages are to be taught in the public schools, there are no classes off the Rez here. The average age of our remaining fluent speakers is over 70. We need to reduce that greatly. This $1,000 grant would enable us to increase the number of speakers & reduce the average age of them.

Aviano (Inactivo) – Angels for Animals - Aviano

2018-07-02T00:00:00Z

Angels for Animals of Aviano will seek to provide comfort and care for stray and abandoned animals in the Aviano, Italy area, where the feral population tends to be large due to the moderate climate. Help will be provided in the form of food, medical treatment, shelter, love and placement with a forever home. The organization will enlist volunteers to set up food points, foster rescues and manage animal care.

Ann Arbor, MI – Project Reentry Resource Navigator

2018-07-02T00:00:00Z

Project Reentry is a relatively new program that supports re-sentenced juvenile lifers in Michigan. We are based out of the State Appellate Defender Office and collaborate with a team of public defenders, masters-level social work interns, and community organizations, united by a shared mission to help incarcerated people successfully reenter Michigan communities. Our clients were arrested as children and given life without parole sentences but became eligible for resentencing after a 2016 Supreme Court decision. Now they are being released back into society, never having lived as adults. Many of our clients have trouble using the internet to find and access services in their communities. Technology advanced rapidly while they were incarcerated, so many websites and devices are difficult to navigate and understand. We are planning to build an easy to use website that connects incarcerated people to felony-friendly resources nearest to them. Users will input their location and needs, and the website will generate a list of nearby organizations that can help. The descriptions of the organizations will include eligibility requirements, hours, a map view, what to bring, and other important information. As many of our clients are unfamiliar with new technology, we are partnering with a member of the Detroit Community Technology Project, an organization that specializes in making technology more accessible and expanding digital literacy in Detroit. We are also going to run focus groups with our clients to determine what makes technology easier to use. In researching this project, we have been in contact with Purple Binder and the Youth Sentencing and Reentry Project, who have similar websites in Chicago and Pennsylvania. We are planning to pilot the website in Washtenaw County and then expand it to all of Michigan.

Raleigh, NC (Inactivo) – The Oracle Fleet

2018-07-01T00:00:00Z

With the Awesome Grant, I plan to develop the next step of my project, “Oracle Machine,” previously performed at Artspace in Raleigh as well as the North Carolina Museum of Art. As seen in the image I submitted, the Oracle Machine is a contraption constructed from two boxes and a tube, covered in fabric and lights. I, the artist, act as the oracle,and have a box on my head, and the participant has the other box on their head. We converse by speaking and sound is carried through the tube from one box to another. The participant remains completely anonymous, as I cannot see them, and the boxes create sensory deprivation. The power of this seemingly absurd contraption is to facilitate an intimate, open and safe space whether the participant is known or not. I rarely tell the participant what to do, and instead talk through with them their situations. I am trying to inspire participants to be able to have honest, intimate conversations, which they will then hopefully be able to continue in their regular lives. With the grant, I plan to employ a fleet of five oracles at a pop-up event at Anchorlight studios in Raleigh. I will recruit these oracles through my network as well as putting out an open call, and will interview them with a special focus on diverse backgrounds and experience. While I will give the oracles general guidelines on treating people in an open, unbiased manner, I hope each one of them will bring their own special approach to the experience. There will be signs instructing visitors to tell the oracles a secret or ask for advice, and visitors will have a chance to talk to different oracles in order to receive a variety of insights. I believe this will be a great event because it is participatory, unusual, and engages people in in-depth conversation while they are experiencing performance art. It will help visitors look at art in a new way as an experience rather than an object.

State College, PA – Hammock #Communitree

2018-07-01T00:00:00Z

I want to create an eye-catching, sturdy, and multi-layered, hammock tree. A place where our community can hang up their hammocks and be surrounded by friends, family, and/or strangers! The #Communitree is made up of a series of poles/posts/boards that allow users to hangout in many different directions and heights. My favorite part, you ask? The center pole, which holds it all together, is a Peace Pole (which symbolizes the oneness of humanity and our common hope for a world at peace). This important detail emphasizes the true meaning and vision of the #Communitree; To live (or hammock) among those that are different from you and to embrace diversity in your daily tasks. AND, in addition to the #Communitree attracting different demographics of people into one location, it also adds another free, wholesome, and fun adventure into our town!

Liverpool (Inactivo) – Kerbinator

2018-07-01T00:00:00Z

We're working on a project to enter into the Big Bang NW and after playing around with a few ideas we came up with the Kerbinator. The Kerbinator is a button which, when pressed, records the GPS location of the button. The purpose is to crowd source data about where drop-kerbs are located. We want people to take this button and press it, every time they find a drop-kerb. The data will be written locally and then uploaded to a website once connected to wifi, then the co-ordinates will be plotted onto a map so that wheel chair users can plan their routes more easily, taking in the locations of drop-kerbs. Once the button is complete we will make the schematic and design files open sourced and encourage makers across the UK to make their own to contribute data from they local area.

Austin, TX – The Texas Justice Initiative

2018-07-01T00:00:00Z

The Texas Justice Initiative was founded to collect, vet and publicly release information on criminal justice and policing in Texas. TJI released its first report and two related data sets on June 1, 2018. The report includes analysis of nearly three years’ worth of officer-involved shootings in Texas, and more than a dozen years’ worth of records on custodial deaths in Texas. "An incredible team of volunteers has been working together for months to build TJI," says founder Eva Ruth Moravec. "Now that our framework is built, we're ready for intentional growth." A $1000 grant from the Austin Awesome Foundation will help TJI make this data even more accessible to the public. By automating and streamlining their back-end processes, users will be able to filter, map, and parse the raw data for themselves. Says Moravec: "We believe that with quality information, Texans can craft good policy, improve governance, ensure accountability and identify creative solutions."

Sydney – Let's Coach the Coach

2018-07-01T00:00:00Z

We are a local sporting organisation who provide T-ball and Softball for those aged 2-100. As such we want to make sure that our kids in particular have what they need in order to be successful and achieve their goals. This starts at the grass roots level...So why the project ... We want kids to learn, have fun and be successful and wish to enable this through energetic and highly taught coaches who have the right skills in order to teach them what they need to know. Over the years the financial cost of coaching programs has stopped many people wanting and learning to become a coach. The basic program costs $100 per person. We don't want this to be the case and want to be able to provide the opportunity for as many people to become a coach in our sport as we can.

North Minneapolis, MN – The Dance Dream

2018-07-01T00:00:00Z

The Dance Dream was created by a mother who saw the passion her son had for dance. She watched him from a young age dance but never knew how much of an impact it would be on him as he grew older. From dancing in the living room of their home to signing up for the talent show every year, she noticed how he loved to dance and how he was not going to stop anytime. She decided to sign him up for dance classes and from that point on he continued to prosper. He began to enter local dance battles/events and go up against some of the best dancers in the community. It didn’t matter to him if he won or lost; the goal was to perform his best. One day the mother and son sat down and talked about what were his goals and where did he see himself in the future, his response was he wanted to be the best dancer he could and dance all over the world. He wanted learn as many styles of dance he could and some day move to California or New York to be come a dance choreographer. “That’s my dance dream,” he said. And this is where the mom got her inspiration to create The Dance Dream. In April of 2018, The Dance Dream was created by the mother and son.

Disability – Self Care Sunday's Podcast

2018-06-30T00:00:00Z

Self Care Sunday’s is one of the few podcasts on air that centers communities of color and their access to sustainable, non-commercialized self-care. Our team is led by two women of color: host Aditi Juneja and producer Jess Talwar, both Indian-Americans. Aditi created Self Care Sundays as a feminist practice based on the ideas of Audre Lorde, an American writer, feminist and civil rights activist who stated, “We can’t pour from an empty cup.” In Season 1, we started with social justice roots as we interviewed activists and discussed how they combated burnout during unstable political climates. Our inspiration for Season 2 came from our conversation with Alice Wong of the Disability Visibility Project. As she discussed the power of saying “no” and social media boundaries, we decided to explore how one concretely habitualizes self-care practices. The idea fueling this podcast is that our work as activists cannot end at the end of this Administration. We need to remain vigilant and healthy beyond 2020, 2024, and so forth to continue empowering marginalized groups. Our creative vision is informed by intersectionality as we seek to elevate the voices of guests and listeners who exist at the intersection of marginalized identities including race, gender, disability, and sexual orientation. We deliberately choose guests from all walks of life for two reasons. First, we hope that the unique practices discussed by our guests can be broadened and applicable to the lives of our diverse listening base. Second, we hope to “introduce” listeners to folks they otherwise might not have the chance to know, as was the case with our episode with Paralympian Andrew Johnson, former sex worker Kaytlin Bailey, or entrepreneur Carolina Contreras. Blind athletes exist. Sex workers exist. Afro-Latinx people exist. We want to uplift their stories while also talking about a topic unfortunately considered “selfish” or “bougie” by some. What our grantee is saying: "The whole purpose of Self Care Sundays is to explore sustainable, non-commercialized self-care for folks within communities of color that are juggling competing obligations. Discussions of self-care can get clouded quickly with the ideas of face masks and bath bombs, and we’re here to say there’s more to it than that. If we’re talking about making the practice of self-care accessible to more people, we need to make the content itself literally accessible to all people! That’s where this grant is going - to a transcription service to transcribe two seasons worth of episodes."

Alaska (Inactivo) – Keys to Life Eyes Closed Project

2018-06-30T00:00:00Z

The Eyes Closed project is built around the possibilities expressed in the dreams of children. “Open your eyes to see the world; close your eyes to imagine a better one.” Whenever children close their eyes, they can dream; anything can happen! This the thread in each child’s story shared through Eyes Closed. Children speaking more than 100 languages call Anchorage their home. Under its sky they dream at night and tell stories during the day, wresting from each one meanings and symbols from their cultures. Eyes Closed has gathered 69 stories from these children. Keys to Life will display 16 of the stories on 4’ x 8’ exhibit panels installed throughout the city in August 2018. Each panel consists of professional photographs and story excerpts. An additional five children’s dream/stories will be published in the accompanying full-color book. The panels will render Anchorage’s streets an atlas of our combined heritages. Take seven-year old Mohamud Hassan. He was born in Uganda. His parents moved to Somalia when he was still a baby. Now they all call Alaska home, and we are fortunate, because Mohamud dreams of becoming the kindest businessman ever. For a person to be happy all he needs is “a house, clothes, and shoes,” says Mohamud. He still remembers his early years in Somalia. Men went to work. Women washed their clothes in the rivers, often speaking about America. After the chores, they all gathered around a fire. His aunties would sing, while someone else would play drums. Back in Somalia, people had little, but they had each other. Mohamud arrived in the US two years ago not speaking English. Now he speaks it fluently and thrives at school. Whenever he attends to special events, Mohamud arrives perfectly dressed in a two-piece suit. In the fall of 2018, Keys to Life will host school exchanges, public conversations, and other programs to extend the reach of the stories, the children who told them, and the hope for a better Anchorage that they represent

New York City, NY – Homeward Bound: Memories, Identity, and Resilience

2018-06-28T00:00:00Z

Located in the heart of Chinatown, the W.O.W. Project is a new women-run initiative growing, protecting, and preserving Chinatown’s creative culture and history through arts, discussion and activism. Founder Mei Lum is the 5th generation owner of her family’s 93-year-old porcelain ware business and the oldest operating store in NYC's Chinatown, Wing on Wo & Co. (W.O.W.). The W.O.W. Project directly responds to the community’s needs by addressing pressing concerns voiced by all generations, gender-identities, and economic backgrounds. With the future of Chinatown’s multi-generational community threatened by displacement, it will take community solidarity and resistance to mitigate the powerful forces of gentrification. The W.O.W. Project is a space for Chinatown residents to sustain ownership over our community’s future. In their first year, they hosted 13 public programs with a total attendance of over 500 people, each program reaching their maximum capacity of about 40 people. They’ve launched an annual storefront artist residency, initiated a design challenge to recycled decades of wooden crates, hosted two emerging filmmakers screenings and an open mic night of storytelling from Chinatown residents. Homeward Bound: Memories, Identity, and Resilience in the Chinese Diaspora, is a series of 5 public events: presentations, panels,and a visual exhibition, highlighting everyday resilience across the Chinese diaspora in Chinatowns on the East and West Coasts and eight countries that are confronted with urban displacement. This is the first series of this kind initiated by the W.O.W. Project and two Chinese American scholars who have spent the past years conducting ethnographic, community-based research on the diaspora. This project addresses the need for our community's stories and residents' voices to be uplifted and heard in a rapid time of change and to bring those conversations into a global focus. The final event of their series will be held on July 19, 2018. Get your tickets now. If you're inspired by the W.O.W. you can support them during their 2nd Anniversary Fundraiser.

San Antonio, TX – Scio STEM

2018-06-28T00:00:00Z

Scio STEM seeks to inspire children 6 months to 4 years of age in appropriate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) concepts through a combination of free and guided play. Many experts agree that children learn the most and fastest in the first 5 years of life than any other point in life, yet developmental resources for this age group is severely underfunded. Unfortunately, The United States lags far behind many other developed countries in science and mathematics. In order to combat these statistics, Scio STEM plans to travel the community of San Antonio offering weekly themed STEM events at public parks, daycares, and schools. The primary target is to provide resources for underprivileged children and parents. We can observe the scientific method even in infancy. An infant sees something such as a toy on the floor and they make an observation. An infant then proceeds to make a hypothesis about what it is. They then pick it up and put it in their mouth. They are experimenting. They think about it and analyze what they put in their mouth. Their facial reaction of pleasure or disgust is their report. Lastly, they share what they find with others. We want to inspire children as young as 6 months through unique, fun, thought provoking, age appropriate activities and build the confidence of parents to teach STEM concepts through everyday interactions. We have learned that it is more effective to give a head start in STEM than it is to remediate a student later in K-5 grades. We have volunteers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics ready to attend these weekly events to directly interact with children and parents. We have implemented marketing through social media platforms and are optimistic about continued exponential outreach. With a clear vision and a community in need we hope to make a true, much needed difference here in San Antonio.

Poughkeepsie, NY – Youth Mural Arts workshop of the HV Community Ctr.

2018-06-27T00:00:00Z

In 2009 I started the Youth Mural Arts program as a way to 'give back' all that I've learned as an artist. Since then, as the the founder and director of the program, I have worked with thousands of youth and dozens of artists to make large scale grassroots community engaged public art installations in the Hudson Valley and Catskill regions of NY. These projects not only beautify and energize our public spaces but also give our youth awesome tools for team building, leadership skills and future creative endeavors. The mural will be painted on wood panels and then installed on the exterior facade of the building. We would like to host a series of six workshops with the youth at the Poughkeepsie Community Center to make a large mural on the exterior of their building that will be shared with thousands of Poughkeepsie residents. The students will learn the power of public art to promote positive change, practice team building exercises, conceptualize and design the mural, learn different techniques to transfer their design, and explore many different techniques for application of paint resulting in a tangible fully fledged work of art. The Community Center located at 101 Grand Street has a wide range of facilities ranging from a swimming pool to a basket ball court to a dance studio and so much more. There is no current art programming at the center so this project is a perfect fit for the students as well as those served by the facility. The center serves hundreds of at-risk youth as well as many seniors and many other members of the community through a variety of programming and activities. This project will serve to uplift & engage everyone who comes in contact with it as it will be shared with the entire community for many years to come. http://www.hvcommunitycenter.com/ Our goal is to use this project as a launching pad for a long term art program at the center. The attached photos are a few examples of past murals, More at the link provided above..

Leiden – Vensterbank #3

2018-06-27T00:00:00Z

Graag zou ik bij de entree van Leiden (stationsplein) een non-profit window-galerie willen openen om werk te exposeren van gevestigde en beginnend kunstenaars die in opdracht hiervoor speciaal nieuw werk maken. Dus elke maand een verse expositie met toffe werken waarbij de voorbijgangers echt wel even stil moeten staan en waarvan de entree dus gratis is! Achter de ramen komt een ruime witte etalage (bak) waar de werken in kunnen staan of hangen en natuurlijk met met licht, zodat men het s'avonds ook kan bewonderen. Kortom een echte awesome toevoeging voor de stad en haar kunstminnaars en cultuurliefhebbers!

Poughkeepsie, NY – After school Music Production Program

2018-06-27T00:00:00Z

We provide a program for students to learn music production and recording in a real commercial studio enviornment. The time for the program is 3-6pm and will include learning how to select sounds, mix and basic production skills. The age group will be High school age. Instructors for this project will include myself a proven music producer with credits that include work on various projects in the music industry alongside students from Vassar College and working artists and professional musicians. This will be a great way for kids with an interest in the field of music and entertainment to gain hands on experience and broaden the scope of knowledge on a universal language..

Rotterdam – Flashed by Sneaky Fitness

2018-06-27T00:00:00Z

Did you know that 48 % of the kids and 45% of the adults who live in Rotterdam exercise too little? We can understand why. We don't like to sport either. Even though we know it is good for our health. We came up with a fun solution! We believe we can nudge people into exercising and moving just by making it fun to do. Imagine playing pong by running in front of a screen against someone else somewhere in the Netherlands, be challenged to jump as far as possible by stripes on the sidewalk, or being flashed by a speedcamera which takes a picture if you run fast enough. We already did our first tests by marking stripes on the floor with the text 'jump'. We found out that 56% of the kids that walked by used the Sneaky Fitness challenge and even 5% of the adults used the intervention. These test results are very promising! Our dream is to make every inhabitant of Rotterdam move more often every day!

Utrecht – Straotpraot tegels

2018-06-26T00:00:00Z

Straotpraot: een praatje op straat met je buren, de postbode of die wachtende reiziger bij de bushalte. In contact, in verbinding, in gesprek: je blik los van de eeuwig afleidende telefoon. Straotpraottegels op de grond in bushaltes met inspirerende en prikkelende teksten vangen je aan de telefoon gekluisterde blik en nodigen uit een praatje met je buurman te beginnen. Te beginnen in Zuilen. Zo simpel kan een Awesome idee zijn.

Washington, DC – Museum of Bureaucracy

2018-06-26T00:00:00Z

Americans, especially us in DC, are preoccupied with concern about the erosion of democratic norms and a perceived assault on our nation’s institutions. But while the 24-7 news cycle fixates on these external pressures, we hear virtually nothing about the internal corrosion and contradictions of our institutions. We rely on 18th century institutions to meet 21st century challenges. Rather than innovate and renew, we double down on administration, feeding and expanding an autocratic, inefficient bureaucratic beast. The irony is that these very institutions charged with guaranteeing our democracy and individual freedom are at their core undemocratic, individual crushing juggernauts. At a time when trust in government is at an all time low, how can we restore that trust and confidence if the essential nature of bureaucracy is anathema to the values we hold dear? Enter the Museum of Bureaucracy (MoB) – an experiential, pop-up performance art satire that will bring to light the soul crushing, dehumanization of day-to-day life in the bureaucracy and will spur conversation and introspection on what democracy means within the institutions meant to guarantee it. But why will it be awesome? Because it will be a ridiculously entertaining, over-the-top satire, oozing with kaftka-esque dark humor. It will be like if instead of writing A Modest Proposal, Thomas Swift instead opened a food truck. Rest assured that no babies will be harmed, but the sensibilities and comfort level of our patrons will nonetheless be threatened. They will endure the indignities of being yelled at by middle management, of having to send a fax, of having to get clearance to use the restroom, waiting in line for a number only to get assigned to another line, and of sitting through a career counseling session with a box-wine swilling, retired-in-place bureaucrat depicted by an off-season mall Santa. There will be a stress ball pit, a cubical maze, and red tape dispensers. In short, it will be awesome!

Awesome Without Borders (Inactivo) – Black Barbie: A Documentary

2018-06-25T00:00:00Z

LOGLINE In 1959, Barbie was released. Twenty-one years later, Black Barbie hit the shelves. Beulah Mae Mitchell, who worked on the Mattel assembly line, asked her boss Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie: “Why isn’t there a doll that looks like me?” Today, her niece, filmmaker Lagueria Davis, will tell her story and explore the broader struggle for Black female representation in a world where worthy rarely means Black. SYNOPSIS Through examining the history of Barbie, the most iconic girl toy brand of all time, Black Barbie: A Documentary will explore the double standard of femininity and beauty that Black women face. With exclusive access to Beulah Mae Mitchell, the charismatic aunt of the director, the film will take us on a personal journey through her 45-year career at Mattel working on the signature brand, and her impact on the evolving diversity displayed in today’s product line. Historically the toy industry, led predominantly by white men and women, has overlooked the significance of seeing diverse faces mirrored on our shelves, and the lengthy, uphill battles it takes to get them there. Our film will bolster the importance of representation and the necessity to incorporate more inclusive voices into the mainstream.

Tallahassee, FL (Inactivo) – Girls Rock Camp Tallahassee

2018-06-25T00:00:00Z

Girls Rock Camp Tallahassee is a new summer camp that seeks to empower young women and girls through music, self-expression and community building. Girls Rock Camp started in Portland, OR in 2001 and its enormous impact can be seen in the hundreds of sister camps that have sprung up throughout the US and around the world. United by the Girls Rock Camp Alliance, these camps utilize the same basic approach: form campers into bands, guide them as they write one song, teach each camper how to play an instrument, and celebrate their achievements at a public concert at the end of the week. In addition to the music lessons, we have invited local artists, dancers and teachers of all kinds to conduct hour-long workshops as additions to the daily camp schedule. As we look forward to our inaugural camp in Tallahassee this July, we envision an exciting opportunity for creativity, community and fun. Though we can only accept 16 campers this year, we look forward to growing in the years to come.

Kingston – Girls SySTEM Mentorship Program

2018-06-25T00:00:00Z

Recently, with the generous support of the NSERC funding agency, I founded the Girls SySTEM Mentorship Program - Canada's FIRST STEM-focused professional mentorship platform. We aim to inspire young STEMists and increase women's representation in STEM-related fields by pairing girls in grades 8-12 with professional mentors from a diverse range of fields. By doing so, they will be able to acquire first-hand knowledge and experiences early in their academic careers. The statistics are grim, with a reported 20% of Canada's post-secondary STEM students being female. Similarly, women are still vastly under-represented in the STEM workforce, occupying merely 22%. We aim to alleviate the barriers to STEM-based learning and increase STEM education for the next generation of innovators. Research shows that the production of university graduates in science and engineering begins early on, in elementary and high school, when children are exposed to and form opinions about these diverse fields. This is a critical period when students, especially young girls, begin to question their inherent abilities in STEM-related study and formulate gender-biased opinions which impact their capabilities. Therefore, by targeting this important period in their academic careers, our program objectives are three-fold: 1) To raise awareness of the diversity of women holding STEM positions so that we may attempt to alter the belief that STEM roles are solitary or genetically predisposed 2) To sustain girls’ interest in science throughout their high school careers and allow them to experience the first-hand possibilities of STEM fields on their own terms 3) To provide aspiring young girls with positive role models who will empower, support, and guide them towards career decision making

Orlando, FL – College Park Mural

2018-06-25T00:00:00Z

The goal of this project is to bring a colorful and positive mural to the main drag of College Park. We were able to secure a nationally recognized artist, Chris Uphues, to come and handprint the mural with his signature bright colors and whimsy. This mural with positiviley impact the economy of the surrounding businesses while increasing traffic to College Park, cementing it’s appeal as a Main Street destination.

Washington, DC – TINY CAT - Dark Music Festival/Benefit for Charity

2018-06-25T00:00:00Z

This summer Working Order Records will be hosting a two-day dark music festival called TINY CAT on Friday, August 3rd and Saturday, August 4th at the Black Cat in Washington, DC. TINY CAT will consist of five acts per night. Both Hélène de Thoury from Hante and both members of Sally Dige will be flying in from Europe for their first ever US performances. Seven of the ten acts have never before played in Washington, DC. The TINY CAT Dark Music Festival is a benefit for charity. 100% of the proceeds raised are being donated to the Greater DC Diaper Bank (https://greaterdcdiaperbank.org/). Our mission is to make a positive impact in our community through music and promotions. We hope you will join us in support of this awesome charity! GREATER DC DIAPER BANK empowers families and individuals in need throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia by providing an adequate and reliable source for basic baby needs and personal hygiene products. For this benefit we will be raising funding for two of their programs; The Baby Pantry and The Monthly: A Greater DC Diaper Bank Program. DAY 1 LINEUP: FRIDAY, AUGUST 3RD Hante. (Paris) Kontravoid (Toronto) Technophobia (DC) Remote/Control (Philadelphia) Radiator Greys (DC) DAY 2 LINEUP: SATURDAY, AUGUST 4TH Crash Course in Science (PA) Tempers (NYC) Void Vision (Philadelphia) TWINS / That Which Is Not Said (Atlanta) Aertex (DC/NYC) MORE LINKS & INFO:
FB Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/584472515245677/
Working Order Records: http://www.workingorderrecords.org
WOR FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/worecords/
WOR Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/worecords/
Technophobia FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/Technophobiamusic/
Technophobia Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/technophobiamusic/
The Black Cat DC: https://www.facebook.com/BlackCatDC/
Charity FB Page: https://www.facebook.com/dcdiaperbank/
Charity Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dcdiaperbank/
Dropbox link for the TINY CAT Press Kit: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2besc8r8z5iij1d/AABSqa06SfmaIQQF8Y-yYURsa?dl=0 Our current and pending support is all in-kind donations. • 50 festival t-shirts will be printed and donated. We will sell these at both days of the event and all of the proceeds will go toward the donation to the Greater DC Diaper Bank. • Sticky Fingers Bakery has donated some gift cards for a raffle we will be having at the event. • We have also reached out to local hotels to donate hotel rooms, but have not received answers yet.

Adelaide – Memory Objects

2018-06-22T00:00:00Z

Amber Cronin, curator at The Mill is working with artist, John Blines on his latest project: Memory Objects to realise the next stages of his research. John is an artist who is passionate about the benefit of arts-in-health. Since July 2015, he has been working with cancer patients and their carers, cancer researchers and psychologists at the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer. John served in the Royal Australian Air Force for 20 years. This fraternal link has motivated John to work with Veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. John himself has incurable cancer and an associated mental health condition and sees the benefit that his arts practice has on his wellbeing and wishes explore sharing his practice through the framework presented by the institutional space of the gallery. John aims to use his time in residence at The Mill to consider childhood memories which often permeate mental health conditions through, he will do this through the creation of objects created from his own memory. It is both personal therapy and an experiment within a broader Arts in Health framework.The wax and silver objects, either as an archive or assembled into new forms, represent the possibility of an altered psychology. This project is experimental and is anticipated as a small and evolving installation over the three month residency period. The methodology and understanding of the process and its outcomes will develop and evolve during the project. As a way of instigating the evolution of this project, John will also work with Returned Service Personnel who have been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or other mental health conditions as a regular meet up and feedback group. The project consists of a three month publicly accessible gallery residency displaying/working on the evolving artwork - this residency makes process available to the audience. John will also hold an artist talk and workshop (in creating objects) to share his practice.

Gloucester, MA – Gloucester High School Transition Team

2018-06-22T00:00:00Z

The Gloucester High School Transition Team is applying for the Awesome Gloucester grant in order to expand our curriculum for the 2018-2019 school year. The GHS Transition Team prepares local seniors and post-graduates with disabilities for life after high school. Students spend the first half of every school day in academic classes, then they trek out in the afternoon to complete volunteer work, internships, and practice their social and community skills through meaningful activities around Gloucester. Currently, all Transition Team activities are student-funded. There has been no additional funding provided by the district to the Transition Team for educational expenses. With the Awesome Gloucester funding, we will be able to fund essential opportunities to our 2018-2019 curriculum. The Awesome Gloucester grant will provide CATA and Amtrak training, transportation costs to nearby post-secondary programs for individuals with disabilities, Cape Ann YMCA memberships, and enriching community experiences within Gloucester, such as field trips and monthly lunch outtings, building social skills, while giving back to the local economy.

Adelaide – Play it On

2018-06-22T00:00:00Z

Play it On is a new social enterprise that will provide funding to assist children from families that are financially challenged, to participate in sports. Our vision is 'Australian children have the opportunity to play sport regardless of their financial situation' How it works: We collect unwanted sports gear, rejuvenate it in Men's Sheds and sell it online, the profits raised will create a foundation for children who can't afford to pay sporting club fees. In South Australia in lower socio-economic areas, children’s participation in sport is around half the participation rates of kids in other areas and this is primarily due to finances. Play it On will create a sustainable way to support all kids to play, it will recycle gear that would otherwise end up in landfill and hopes to employ young people in retail that are mad about sport! Kids out-grow sports equipment fast. They can also change sports and organised physical activities with amazing regularity. This can end up costing families hundreds of dollars for every active child for every season and every sport they may play. When a family has more than one active child, the costs can really add up quickly. Much of the gear people have in their sheds is in great condition and has lots of years left in it. People have a chance to donate the used equipment and help clear some space in their garage. We can help to reduce the financial pressure on families by selling used gear at cheaper prices. Our end game is to increase the rates of kids playing sport knowing the health and social benefits by being involved in organised sport!