Օսմ հիմնադրամ - Նախագծեր

Yerevan – Turn the page

2019-09-26T00:00:00Z

Լոռու մարզի Մեծ Պարնի համայքնում չկա համապատասխան տարածք/հարթակ, որտեղ գրքասեր մեծպարնեցիները կկարողանան օգտվել որակյալ գրականությունից, կազմակերպել քննարկումներ, անցկացնել դասընթացներ։ Հենց սա էր պատճառը, որ երիտասարդական կենտրոնի անդամները որոշեցինք նախաձեռնել գրադարակ-հարթակի ստեղծում, որտեղ կկարողանան իրականացնել՝ -գրքի քննարկումներ -պոեզիայի երեկոներ -դասընթացներ -բանավեճեր -<< մասնագիտական կողմնորոշում>> ծրագիրը, որի շրջանակներում տարբեր մասնագիտություններ ունեցող մարդիկ կներկայացնեն իրենց մասնագիտության առանձնահատկությունները ավագ դպրոցի աշակերտներին: 1988 թվականի երկրաշարժից հետո Մեծ Պարնի համայնքում չկա մշակույթի տուն, իսկ դպրոցի ազատ լսարանները չեն ջեռուցվում և բարեկարգ վիճակում չեն գտնվում։ Այդ պատճառով երիտասադները դիմեցին համայնքապետարան, որը պատրաստակամություն հայտնեց տրամադրել մեզ համայնքապետարանի սենյակներից մեկը որպես գրադարակ օգտագործելու համար։ Գյուղում կան տաղանդավոր նկարիչներ, ովքեր կամավոր կզբաղվեն ապագա գրադարակի նկարազարդմամբ և ինտերիերով։ Գրքերի մի մասը ձեռք կբերվի Անտարես հրատարակչությունից, իսկ մյուս մասը կնվիրաբերեն համայնքի բնակիչները։ Գրադարակից օգտվելու են բոլոր ցանկացողները, թիրախ խումբ են համարվում՝ աշակերտները, ուսուցիչները։ Գյուղում ունենք երիտասարդներ, որոնք ստեղծագործում են արձակ և չափածո ժանրերում և պատրաստակամ են կազմակերպել պոեզիայի երեկոներ։ Առկա է համագործակցություն Օրրան բարեգործական ՀԿ-ի աշխատակիցների հետ, ինչպես նաև կան շատ երիտասարդ կադրեր գյուղում և գործընկերներ տարբեր բնագավառներում, ովքեր պատրաստ են իրենց փորձով կիսվել գյուղի երիտասարդների հետ, կազմակերպել դասընթացներ։ Օրրան բարեգործական Հկ-ի կազմակերպած <<Երիտասարդները հանուն համայնքի զարգացման>> ծրագրի շրջանակներում կազմակերպվելուև են բանավեճեր տարբեր համայնքների թիմերի միջև, իրականացնելու ենք նաև գրքերի և գրական ժանրերի քննարկումներ և վերլուծություններ՝ բանասիրական ֆակուլստետում սովորող մեր երիտասարդական կենտրոնի անդամների նախաձեռնությամբ։

Leiden – Samen Planten, Samen Oogsten #10

2019-09-25T00:00:00Z

Wij willen een duurzame groentetuin realiseren in samenwerking met de voedselbank Leiden. De producten die verbouwd worden kan de Voedselbank weer inzetten om mensen te voorzien van VERS voedsel.

Phoenix, AZ (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Puente AZ Community Garden

2019-09-25T00:00:00Z

Puente AZ will cultivate and maintain a community garden for its membership and neighbors to celebrate, cry, heal, relax and reinvigorate themselves in, thus uplifting the souls of its community. The space will serve as a meeting space, a meditation and healing center where spiritual cleansing can take place, as well as a place to have old-fashioned cookouts. "Our people, state, and nation have been living through a great deal of trauma with very little means to cope. We envision our garden being a resting place for our weary loved ones, a place of safe haven and compassion where we can share laughs, tears, and much more, as a united front," Isis Gil says. Puente Human Rights Movement, as an organization, has been fighting injustices – in the immigration system, criminal justice system, education system and policing system – by taking on legal cases, organizing and staying in solidarity with the youth in the community, as well as shining a light on abuses of power particularly when it happens against people of color. "As a center for our people, Puente has been a beacon for our undocumented brothers and sisters, it has been a hub for political education for those not normally meant to be engaged in such a system," Gil continues. "And it has also been a symbol for resilience through dedicated and passionate challenges to all misuses of authority." Puente AZ believes it is vital to promote and embrace the well-being of the soul, body and mind through various means and methods that keep individuals centered and rooted with ancestors and mother earth. "These principles are instrumental to how we function and work with our people, since we would not be here without their strength and kindness, which speaks to the intentional vision for our garden," Gil says. The Puente AZ Community Garden – a fully functioning community space with various plants, trees and herbs – will allow the community to enjoy and unwind. It will be a place of community empowerment and tranquility, and the benefits will be immeasurable.

Portland, OR – Roots and Beats Project

2019-09-25T00:00:00Z

Roots and Beats Project fosters positive youth development through media arts education and cultural engagement. Our curriculum merges tradition and technology to weave culturally rooted digital storytelling focusing on immigrant, refugee and ethnic diaspora experience. We work in collaboration with local nonprofits and schools to provide music and multimedia workshops at no cost to underserved youth ages 12-21 years old. We strive to make all of our curriculum culturally responsive and trauma informed, aspects crucial to meet our students where they are. We believe that when young people feel safe expressing themselves creatively, embracing cultural diversity, and bonding with adult mentors, it unlocks a great potential for the development of wide ranging skills and competencies for future community leaders. Currently, we are organizing for an 8 week artistic mentorship series for 12 Native youth at NAYA Early College Academy- a culturally specific alternative highschool for students struggling in typical public education settings. Mentorship will include a mix of Native folk arts, acoustic and electronic music, and video creation exploring the multifaceted themes of Native identity, tradition and culture in an urban context. The twice-weekly sessions will be hosted partially at NAYA campus, and will include field trips to professional recording studio, digital music studio, and video production studio. We will invite guest musicians and cultural performers to share their art, and work with the students to record audio samples and footage for use in the creation of original electronic compositions and accompanying video. We will facilitate lessons, working side by side with the students in realization of finished works. Final public presentation will feature video installation and music with performances from collaborating artists to celebrate Native visibility

Portland, OR – Greenhouse startup

2019-09-25T00:00:00Z

I am starting a greenhouse program at Sprague High School, where I am currently a science teacher. Sprague has an amazing greenhouse facility just outside the building, but it has been unused for a few years. The greenhouse itself needs a little work, it has some shelves that need to be rebuilt and needs to have the vent system fixed. However, my priority is to acquire seeds and starts to begin cultivating as the facility is usable, and then I will work on greenhouse updates. It is my goal to get the greenhouse up and running this year, so the first step is to obtain some plants for students to begin working with. In order to achieve this goal, I plan on starting on a small scale. I am striving to move large portions of my teaching out into the greenhouse facility. Research in education strongly indicates that providing students with opportunities to experience hands on, real life learning, enables them to engage deeper in their understanding of the curriculum. School Garden Project is one example of this style of learning. I am basing the Sprague greenhouse project off of the School Garden Project mission: School Garden Project is committed to a future in which all children become knowledgeable, healthy adults who understand the basics of growing food, can apply science principles to garden ecosystems, steward the natural world, eat fruits and vegetables, and contribute to a thriving community (School Garden Project Website). School Garden Project has inspired me to incorporate gardening into my curriculum and the Awesome Foundation Grant is a way that I can achieve my greenhouse goals. Lastly, my long term goals involve making the greenhouse usable so that other teachers and students to have access to the space as well. I am excited about the opportunity to receive the Awesome Foundation Grant and further the awesomeness in the Portland area.

New York City, NY – Preservation of the DYKE TV Raw Footage Archive

2019-09-25T00:00:00Z

In operation since 1974, **The Lesbian Herstory Archives is home to the world's oldest and largest collection of archival, bibliographic and multimedia materials by and about the diverse lesbian experience**. LHA is, and has always been, an all-volunteer run, 501(c)3, non-profit educational organization with no paid staff and no government support. **Dyke TV was a groundbreaking public access program founded in 1993** by Mary Patierno, Ana Marie Simo and Linda Chapman. An offshoot of the Lesbian Avengers, the mission of Dyke TV was to incite, provoke and organize communities to create tangible change. The program sought to increase lesbian visibility and to systemically change people's views of lesbians, gay rights and women's rights. Dyke TV comprehensively documented a critical time period in gay and lesbian history and shared stories that were important to lesbian communities when no other programs were. LHA currently maintains a collection of over **2,000 original Dyke TV Raw Footage video tapes** that documents marches and demonstrations in New York City and includes incomplete episodes and compilations of show segments. The ultimate goal is to create a searchable collection of metadata, thumbnails, clips and archival description for this collection, and they have worked with a consultant to create a plan to create this database. LHA Caretaker and Coordinator Desiree Yael Vester writes: "_While there has been a great deal of attention dedicated to the LGBT community in general there is a very large gap due to missing care, attention, funding and support for specifically lesbian cultural creations. LHA is consulted regularly about lesbian herstory and we want to be able to provide access to this invaluable treasure trove of raw video created by and about lesbians containing interviews, performances, protests and every facet of lesbian lives, experiences, activities & contributions to queer community in NYC in the 1990s. There is nothing more powerful for young queer women than seeing who they are reflected in the media around them and identifying themselves as part of a continuum of identity that proves they are not alone, they matter, they can be powerful, they can make change and have an impact._" We are excited that our AwesomeNYC grant will help LHA retrieve and digitize some of their footage to use in their fundraising efforts to help bring their entire archive online. You can see some of the footage that has already been digitized [on their site at the Pratt Institute School of Information](http://herstories.prattinfoschool.nyc/omeka/exhibits/show/dyke-tv/dyke-tv-segments).

Melbourne (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Wheels for Dancing

2019-09-25T00:00:00Z

Northern Country Line Dancers from the Southern Mallee, northern Victoria, are made up of a hardcore and dedicated group of women who meet twice a week for line dancing. The age ranges from 60 - 92 years of age. This doesn't stop the ladies - but - a request for 4 walking frames has been made. Not wanting to leave the group (and we don't want to lose them), while also considering OH&S requirements of the group, walking frames appears to be a logical solution. Social aspects of the bi weekly dance group, along with the health perspective and issues around isolation, CALD (Culturally & linguistically diverse), are key reasons for supporting these ladies. We envisage an increase in participants with the extra walking frames. Kerang is an aging population and the continuation and development of activities for this demographic is important for good mental health of our community. Performing at local events such as Biggest Morning Tea, social lunches along with other community events, keeps the women young and happy. Having things to attend and look forward to each week is a very important part of living in a small community. Demonstration dances are wonderful for the dancers and audience. Exposure to the young ones in the community will hopefully ensure this activity will continue to expand.

Asheville, NC (Ոչ ակտիվ) – SeekHealing

2019-09-23T00:00:00Z

SeekHealing works to prevent drug overdoses by treating both the individual and the community for addiction. We provide free support services to anyone at any stage in the addiction healing process, and we educate the community about healthy social connection. Part of our program provides free support services that help individuals in early recovery access groups and activities that help them heal, and connect to themselves and the community at large. We would like to partner with local Asheville artist Ginger Huebner to offer a transformative and powerful self-portrait workshop in a group format, as well as for individuals in early recovery who have successfully completed our six-month scholarshop program. Ginger's Create and Connect process creates works that transcend barriers and boundaries in order to express and celebrate our shared humanity. Collaborative Self Portraits have a profound effect not just on the individual, but also on the collaborator, and those that view the work.

Newmarket – New A/V equipment for York Artistic Swimming Club

2019-09-23T00:00:00Z

York Artistic Swimming Club is located in Newmarket and Aurora. We are Ontario Non-for-Profit organization. Since 1988, the Club trains girls at all levels in the sport of Artistic Swimming (formerly known as Synchronized Swimming). Our Club is not just a place for kids to learn and practice the sport. As reflected in our Club's founding documents, Club's activities encourage young girls to develop _healthy lifestyle_; improve their _life skills_; helps them _build capacity_ for learning and reaching goals; boost their _creativity_ while developing their swimming routine; push them to pursue _excellence_; and help them become _ethical and respectful_ persons. Artistic swimming provides young girls with fantastic female role models. Young athletes are coached and mentored by capable, strong and intelligent women, and have a successful, hard-working female athletes to look up to. Artistic swimming helps girls develop a strong sense of self-confidence - the kind of confidence that will lead them to success and to the belief that they can succeed at anything if they work hard enough at it. Artistic swimming empowers young girls and teaches them about self-esteem, self-disciple, healthy body image, team-work, and time-management. Girls learn how to set goals and push themselves to excel.

Oahu, HI – Performing Arts Speakeasy

2019-09-22T00:00:00Z

The Performing Arts Speakeasy is an interactive, multi-disciplinary, performing arts laboratory involving a secret location, audience participation and judging, and multiple new collaborations of performing arts groups and individuals happening on stage. This 1&1/2 - 2 hour event will happen 4 times this season and is a password only event, with details regarding its location released 24 hours prior to doors opening. Arts groups and individuals will combine their disciplines to test out new ways to make music. You may see hula with rap, or a culinary collaboration (live cooking) with a jazz group. The point is to test these out in short-form, for audiences to vote on and decide which are worthy of being developed into longer ideas or shows. Each Speakeasy will be catered with heavy pupus and signature drinks, wine and beer will be available for purchase. And all artists will be either locally born, or heavily entrenched in the local music community. Performances will happen in sets, like at a normal bar event and venues would be focused toward non-traditional spaces and found locations.

Antigonish, NS (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Tokens for food - Reducing food insecurity

2019-09-19T00:00:00Z

I heard an awesome news story on the radio this week. A small farmer's market in Spryfield, NS started a unique initiative of using tokens for food, see link below: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/spryfield-farmers-market-food-insecurity-poverty-community-1.5197313 The idea came when vendors were loosing sales because they couldn't accept credit/debit cards. The market set up a booth with a SQUARE account where patrons could buy tokens (5$ value) to use at the market. They also accepted donations and some of the tokens could be donated to the local food bank to give out. This way, vendors would have no way to know who purchased the tokens and who received them from the food bank. This improved access to healthy locally produced food to people who otherwise could not afford it. Our market looked into a while back but the cost of producing these tokens was prohibitive. So I spoke to Jeff Teasdale at CACL who was so excited about the project and is working on prototypes for us.

Chicago, IL – The Chicago Tool Library

2019-09-18T00:00:00Z

The Chicago Tool Library is a community lending library with an inventory of tools and equipment (including home and kitchen equipment) that community members are able to borrow. Our mission is to provide equitable access to tools, equipment, and information to allow all Chicagoans to learn, share, and create. We believe that centralizing resources like tools levels the playing field for our community to make improvements in their lives, it prevents senseless consumerism and thoughtless waste, and it creates a new space for community-building and sharing information.

Brumadinho (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Levando água até os incêndios florestais

2019-09-18T00:00:00Z

As brigadas são compostas por voluntários, pessoas comuns que se colocam à disposição da sociedade, da flora e da fauna. A Brigada Guará atua em um raio de 15 km no entorno de Casa Branca, distrito de Brumadinho, longe da sede do corpo de bombeiros. Ao controlar incêndios, busca proteger a população e preservar o cerrado e a mata atlântica. O controle dos focos de incêndio, quando é feito no momento em que se iniciam, impede que ocorram grandes incêndios florestais. O combate aos incêndios utiliza várias estratégias e deve ser feito de forma segura. No entanto, em alguns momentos o brigadista se depara com situações perigosas, como quando o fogo chega perto de moradias e quando o fogo está alto e o vento começa a soprar contra ele. Quando isso acontece, o uso dos sopradores (equipamento usado habitualmente) não se faz efetivo e os brigadistas passam por momentos de desespero e risco. Nessas situações, somente o uso de água resolve (essa é a maneira mais eficaz de apagar o fogo), mas é raro contar com os bombeiros no local. O objetivo é criar uma forma similar à utilizada pelos bombeiros, ou seja, transportar água até os locais em chamas para atuar de forma mais efetiva no controle dos incêndios, em condições mais seguras para os brigadistas. Será preciso adquirir alguns equipamentos: uma motobomba husqvarna, uma mangueira de incêndio 15mm tipo bombeiro e um reservatório de água com capacidade de 310L, que serão instalados na caminhonete - veículo colocado à disposição da Brigada Guará, utilizado no combate a incêndios. Neste vídeo é possível ver a atuação da Brigada Guará no controle dos incêndios florestais. https://www.facebook.com/brigadaicb/is videos/1637747639604882/ Quem é o proponente Felipe Butcher tem 38 anos e é brigadista voluntário na Brigada Guará há três anos. Programador, trabalha em Casa Branca, onde vive. Por ter horário de trabalho flexível, está sempre à disposição da Brigada Guará. Ele também foi uma das primeiras pessoas a chegar ao local do desastre da Vale. encurtador.com.br/ehDNY Valor do aporte R$2.200,00 O que mais precisa além do dinheiro Que as pessoas reportem incêndios, se voluntariem como brigadistas ou participem da logística do combate aos focos de incêndio (oferecendo almoço, água potável, carona etc. ).

Philadelphia, PA – Challenger Gym Program

2019-09-17T00:00:00Z

All children can benefit from exercise, energy release and the pure enjoyment of playing sports. This includes children with special needs. Families need to have a place to receive social and emotional support while trying to navigate the challenges of raising a child with special needs. Challenger Gym, led by a licensed Physical Therapist, was established to provide a community gym program for children with special needs. The emphasis is on having fun, providing physical activities in which the children can successfully participate while forging relationships with high school volunteers "buddies". This "no fee" program was created to fill a niche for kids who would have difficulty participating in traditional community sports programs Everyone wins participating in the Challenger Gym Program! Children develop self-esteem and grow self-confidence. Families receive quality programming at no charge while connecting with the community and High School volunteers forge life-changing relationships with community members.

Philadelphia, PA – The Future Is Us Collective

2019-09-17T00:00:00Z

Originally founded as a youth coalition of 8 artists in 2017, The Future is Us Collective exists as an all-inclusive arts collective based in Philadelphia. Through our exhibits, we give local unestablished artists (typically high school students) the opportunity to showcase their artworks for little to no showcasing fees. We give these artists a career foundation while at the same time, giving Philly youth a safe inclusive space to enjoy the arts. When creating exhibitions, we focus on concentrations that cater to the Philly teen audience to ensure informational accessibility (in addition to financial and locational accessibility) while at the same time making our concentrations universally engaging. In addition to our showcases, we partner with established art-organizations to run youth oriented community engagement initiatives such as youth workshops and collaborative youth exhibitions. Lastly, we act as a resource for emerging artists and creatives in the Philadelphia area with our online platforms and our email newsletter where we share a resource of artists opportunities and accessible events monthly.

Ottawa – Ottawa Scale Solar System

2019-09-17T00:00:00Z

September’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Lynne Rowe to create a city-sized scale model of the solar system. “A location would be found where a mural of the sun can be painted,” Lynne explains. “The size of this sun will determine the scale for the model, from which the orbits of each planet and the size of each planet can be calculated. Locations along each orbit will be investigated to see if any businesses on the orbit are interested in having a model planet on their site — so a store on Venus' orbit would have a scale model of Venus in their store, for example.” Lynne hopes that the project will engage local artists and scientists interested in building the models and local businesses interested in hosting the planets. “Schools could have field trips touring the solar system,” adds Lynne, “giving students a better grasp of the relative sizes and distances of the planets.” Lynne is a science and nature enthusiast, with a background in physics and education. They currently run the Constance Creek Wildlife Refuge and work as a data analyst at a community health centre.

Awesome Without Borders (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Free theatre workshops for migrants and refugees

2019-09-16T00:00:00Z

In January 2019, we launched “Migrations Harbour Europe” a call for plays about the recent migration crisis written by non British writers (especially women and writers of migrant descent). We received 157 plays from 17 countries. A panel of multilingual readers selected 3. We presented them as staged readings. As part of the project we began to run free workshops for migrants and refugees in Tottenham, North London. Tottenham is the most diverse area in Europe, the borough where many new migrants arriving in the UK settle. Despite some recent urban development projects, it’s still quite deprived. We wanted to involve in the selecting and creative project the very people the project was about. Invite them to read and work on some of the plays to see which ones resonated with them. However over the weeks the workshops developed a life of their own. We were totally open. We teamed up with the local Migrants resource centre welcoming to the sessions whomever walked through the door, inviting them to feel free to express themselves, find their voice, reclaim space, or simply practise English. By March the workshops were so successful we extended what was supposed to be a three month series to six months. We produced a short performance. We took participants to the theatre to see anything from contemporary writing to Shakespeare. The group has now become a big family. People who were hardly able to speak English by the end of June were confident enough to act a scene from Measure for Measure. We can’t stop here. We want to start again in September, produce a longer performance for Christmas, developing the short one we did in spring into a full show mixing participants’ personal stories with extracts from plays, songs from their countries, and projections. We want to be the place where people new to Tottenham and the UK go to meet friends and feel at home.

Oakland, CA (Ոչ ակտիվ) – East Bay Creeks' Walk and Chalk

2019-09-16T00:00:00Z

Many Oakland creeks that once flowed freely are now hidden underground from public awareness, making our watersheds both painfully invisible and nonfunctional. Instead of being infiltrated and naturally treated through soil infiltration into naturally flowing creeks, rainwater/stormwater, full of toxic chemicals, plastics, trash and feces, flows from streets to storm drains into underground creeks and then directly into Lake Merritt, the Oakland Estuary and the SF Bay without any treatment. Oaklanders don’t even know the creeks exist or that they are filling them with pollutants. To generate awareness, connection and care for these unseen bodies of water and their dilapidated ecosystems, Wholly H2O is again collaborating with the Mycelium Youth Network to engage two Oakland grade schools in the upper and lower Peralta Creek watershed to give this buried creek a physical presence on the earth’s surface with long-lasting chalk (with proper permits). Why here and why these participants? We want to reach those most likely to take long term action for the benefit of local watershed ecosystems. Bay Creeks Walk and Chalk will viscerally engage about 120 traditionally underserved youth in locating and visually documenting Peralta Creek so that they learn: -why urban creeks are so damn cool -how watersheds operate -where their potable water comes from and goes -history of east bay creeks and their flora and fauna -how their actions contribute to or jeopardize the health of local watersheds This program will get local youth outside and more familiar with their own riparian/terrestrial ecosystems. Rather than a bland message of "save water," the youth participating in the Walk and Chalk will have their own memories of creating the artistic pathways and have a sense of how a watershed flows. By the end, 120 students (and their families) will be more prone to care for watersheds by decreasing trash and making smarter choices about water use from their direct experiences.

Pittsburgh, PA – Treecup Tea

2019-09-16T00:00:00Z

I am the founder of Treecup Tea. We are an organic tea startup based in the Greater Pittsbugh Area. I started the company with my mother almost two years ago as a Sophomore in college. We manufacture six unique flavors of tea and distribute to different mom and pop shops in Pittsburgh and Butler. The flavors are Peruvian Chai (my grandmother's recipe), Berry Jasmine, Lemon Ginseng Green, Gyokuro Matcha, Peach Tumeric, and Lumberjack Black. So far, we have sold over 10,000 bottles in Western PA. The coolest part about our tea is the fact that we fund the planting of a tree in the 80% deforested country of Haiti for EVERY bottle consumers purchase. As such, we have successfully funded over 10,000 tree saplings in the Artibonite Valley through our partnership with Haiti Friends, a 501c3 non-profit based in Pittsburgh. Our team has spent all of 2019 rebranding from our previous name Te Amo (buyateaplantatree.com) to Treecup. It has been more expensive than forecasted, but we've been good stewards of our funds and pulled off the rebranding with a tight budget. Our new brand is looking very professional, and soon we'll roll out Treecup Tea - Pittsburgh's eco-friendly iced tea - to many Pittsburgh retailers! At a high-level, my vision for Treecup is to provide a philanthropic purchasing decision in the ready-to-drink beverage space with national distribution. This is innovative because this "one-for-one" social/environmental venture has never been applied to a beverage. Food & beverage has the highest repurchase rate out of any industry, thus the highest potential for reaching our goal of reforesting Haiti in its entirety. Treecup will be successful because it is a product designed with current market trends in mind. These trends include that of environmental/social impact, organic/ethically sourced ingredients, local production in small batches, and we even use biodegradable plastic bottles!

Pittsburgh, PA – VoiceGivers Choir

2019-09-16T00:00:00Z

VoiceGivers Choir is blazing new territory in Pittsburgh! Formed in the summer of 2019, we will present programs where music is integrated with personal narrative stories, multimedia, poetry, and other forms of expression to engage the audience in the emotions and reality of important issues facing vulnerable members of our community. The beauty and talents of VoiceGivers singers will work in tandem with those directly affected by and working to alleviate serious challenges to create a deep and memorable experience. We are a professional chamber choir with a mission to help address social and economic issues. In partnership with nonprofit organizations, VoiceGivers creates performances that are intended to engage, motivate and inspire. Our programs follow an emotional arc, starting with musical and narrative material focusing on the particular issue, and then continuing with music of overwhelming hope and vision for a better world. The proceeds of the concerts benefit the partner nonprofit organization. In addition, our objective is to engage an audience beyond the specific event by motivating them to join a cause and devote themselves to the betterment of our city and region. Our inaugural performance will October 13, 2019. The cause is aiding caregivers of children with serious medical issues, and the nonprofit agency is the Pediatric Palliative Care Coalition (https://ppcc-pa.org). We have planned future performances in the winter and spring in support of other nonprofit organizations. Our team and singers are committed to making this happen, to connecting musicians and their audience with the vulnerable in our community. We’re building something here in Pittsburgh that has the potential to be a beacon to artists in other cities, shining a light on an untapped opportunity. Yes, it is true: Music Makes the Difference!

Cass Clay – Enrichment Operation Fall Celebration

2019-09-15T00:00:00Z

Enrichment Operation is the non-profit I created last fall with the mission, 'working to inspire and educate through consistent exposure to enrichment opportunities.' The key to everything we do is the word 'consistent.' This non-profit is my attempt to allow the opportunity to consistently do the things I simply couldn't do as a classroom teacher. Each day I will be available in the cafeteria during breakfast and lunch, building relationships with hundreds of children. They will hear how happy I am to see them at school. I will notice that child who looks lost when trying to find a table they feel welcome at and I will sit with them. In this moment, that student will know they are safe and cared about. Throughout the day I will filter in and out of classrooms, providing social, emotional and academic supports. I will walk that vulnerable child to their reading intervention teacher, being another voice consistently telling them they are going to change the world. When a child is melting down, screaming for help, I will be there to say "let's go grab a drink of water." We will talk and listen, we will process and we will reenter the classroom as friends and equals. The entire class will see the impact of kindness and empathy. Expectations placed on both our teachers and students today are unrealistic. Because of this, many are giving up. Yes, my dreams are big and my expectation is that many of them will be attained. I dream of a system where students consistently have opportunities to engage with the community they live in. Reality is, many of Moorhead's youth aren't being taken fishing or camping, they aren't learning how to read and follow a recipe, feeling how powerful it is to make a meal and share with those close to them. This list of dream 'enrichment opportunities' goes on and on. The reality is, when kids report to school next week I will be there as a consistent mentor, friend and ally. It's an honor and privilege to serve this community in that role.

Cass Clay – Child Programming

2019-09-15T00:00:00Z

The Tu’deako Group works toward a sustainable, supportive community in the FM area with culture. We have programming for our children everyday after school and this money would help provide snacks for their work during this time where we support them doing their homework and being successful. We also meet once a week with children during the school year to talk about our culture, build community, sing, dance, and share a meal. Your money would help support this programming. Also, we’d like to use money for gas. The gas is for transporting food to our families that don’t have access to transportation, are elderly, or are new to this country and just getting settled.

Orlando, FL – Tortilla Printing Pop-up Event

2019-09-14T00:00:00Z

The Creative City project will be hosting a two-day event that includes interactive installations, performances and other hands-on activities for the public to Immerse themselves in! During this time, an unprecedented amount of people will flood the streets of downtown and support local artists as well as different modes of art. By exposing them to these new approaches, it will broaden their definition of what art is and what art can do. For the two days the event spans, October 18 &19, I will invite two internationally renowned artists in the printmaking field, Xavier and Alejandra, also known as Tres Gatos Press, to share their tortilla press printing technique with Orlando! Hailing from Guadalajara, Mexico, these two rogue printmakers have been making a name for themselves by hosting events and showing others that you can use even the most unconventional tools to carve and print your own art. This unique pop-up will bring recognition to the printmaking medium by letting the public print a one-of-a-kind impression and create relationships that transcend borders.

San Francisco, CA – Re-Introduction of Pacific Tree Frogs to FFACC

2019-09-14T00:00:00Z

I would like to introduce our project "Re-Introduction of Pacific Tree Frogs at the Florence Fang Asian Community Garden in Bayview Hunters Point/San Francisco". Our aim to is restore amphibian habitats that are too quickly lost to rapid urbanization, global climate disruption and contamination of the environment. This vision includes restoring an area for an amphibian habitat- several areas within the 1 acre garden: a pond and several bioswales, which will be thoughtfully landscaped to offer hiding areas for the frogs and a respite for the visitors and volunteers to the community garden. The Florence Fang Asian Community Garden was established in 2014, and has become one of the city's largest urban farms- which, in conjunction with the SF/Marin Food Bank, serves over 180 families every Saturday. This community garden is welcoming to all San Franciscans and aims to bring together a network of community groups around policy issues of environmental conservation and sustainability, cultural diversity, healthy living activities and wholesome eating practices.

Brumadinho (Ոչ ակտիվ) – A emoção vai à escola

2019-09-13T00:00:00Z

A proposta do projeto é educar emocionalmente as crianças da educação infantil, ajudando-as a serem resilientes e conscientes de suas emoções, acolhendo-as e resolvendo-as de forma harmônica e equilibrada. Criado em 2016, o projeto “A emoção vai à escola” vem sendo desenvolvido em creches de Belo Horizonte desde então. Até o momento já foram atendidas mais de 250 crianças, nas quais pode ser observado resultado positivo, incluindo o aumento da capacidade cognitiva. O dinheiro será revertido em recursos que as crianças recebem para fortalecer as histórias. Exemplo: na história de família, no final todas recebem um conjunto de dedoches da família de sorrisos de amor. Quem é o proponente/b> Leticia Soares Caldeira Brant é psicóloga infantil, formada pela FCH-FUMEC EM 1989. Além da atuação clínica, foi diretora da Escola Infantil Castelo Mágico por 22 anos. Participou do Projeto Trauma Infantil, dirigido por Gastão Ribeiro. Em 2016, criou o Projeto “A emoção vai à escola”. Valor do aporte/b> R$ 2.000,00 O que mais precisa além do dinheiro/b> Indicação de escolas e creches

Brumadinho (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Festival Terrará

2019-09-13T00:00:00Z
O Festival Terrará é um importante evento do Assentamento Pastorinhas, no município de Brumadinho, criado para divulgar e promover as ações sustentáveis praticadas pelos moradores da comunidade. Previsto para ocorrer no dia 5 de outubro, o Festival vai promover passeios nas hortas orgânicas, no sistema agroflorestal e também no fragmento de Mata Atlântica localizado no assentamento. Além disso, durante todo o dia será realizada uma feira de produtos de origem sustentável, para movimentar a economia local e dar visibilidade aos expositores. O Terrará possui uma equipe capacitada para realizar as oficinas e as visitas nas hortas e na trilha do assentamento, e para atuar na organização e logística do evento. A primeira edição do Festival foi realizada pelo educativo do Instituto Inhotim em 2017. Em 2018 foi realizado de forma independente pela comunidade e seus parceiros. Para este ano, devido à baixa significativa na venda dos produtos após o rompimento da barragem, a comunidade não tem verba para realizar o Festival e está em busca de apoio para a realização da terceira edição do evento. O Terrará foi homenageado no ano de 2018 na Câmara Municipal de Brumadinho, por meio da entrega da Moção Honrosa aos seus realizadores. O Festival é reconhecido pela sua importante contribuição para a sociedade, na busca de um planeta mais sustentável. O município de Brumadinho sofreu em janeiro deste ano o maio desastre ambiental, social e econômico do país. Diante disso, é de extrema importância apoiar iniciativas que popularizam práticas sustentáveis para buscar a sensibilização da população Brumadinhense. /Quem é o proponente/b> O Assentamento Pastorinhas é uma comunidade consolidada através de conflitos agrários. Teve início em 2001 e foi reconhecida pela União em 2008, quando recebeu o direito legal de uso da terra. Desde então, busca popularizar suas práticas sustentáveis de forma independente. Realiza mutirões no Sistema Agroflorestal com o intuito de capacitar os participantes, e promove visitas de escolas, para que os estudantes conheçam a produção sustentável de alimentos. Valor do aporte/b> PROJETO APROVADO MAS NÃO FINANCIADO POR DESISTÊNCIA PELO PROPONENTE. O que mais precisa além do dinheiro/b>

Brumadinho (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Refazendo e Modelando em Casa Branca

2019-09-11T00:00:00Z
O projeto pretende contemplar os atingidos pelo rompimento da barragem em Brumadinho por meio de qualificação profissional em modelagem e costura. As aulas acontecerão duas vezes por semana em dois ciclos de dois meses cada um. As turmas terão um máximo de cinco alunos, totalizando, ao final, dez pessoas capacitadas para atuar no mercado da moda e design em geral. As atividades formativas prepararão os participantes de acordo com alinha de interesse de cada um, podendo incluir os vários seguimentos do vestuário (produção e reparo de roupas), artesanato e design de interiores (almofadas, cortinas, tapetes etc.). A formação incluirá um tempo para a prática do conteúdo, quando a sala e os equipamentos ficarão disponíveis para os alunos, possibilitando a produção de roupas e objetos para uso pessoal ou comercialização. Acredito que usar os saberes e habilidades adquiridas ao longo de tantos anos me trará enorme satisfação, na medida em que compreendo que essa qualificação poderá ser um componente significativo na retomada da autonomia financeira e no resgate da autoestima da comunidade local. As atividades estão intimamente ligadas ao cuidado pessoal (roupas) e do lar (objetos de decoração), ofícios que têm, portanto, o potencial de restabelecer laços afetivos, além de ressignificar a existência no espaço. Planeja usar a verba disponibilizada para a compra de duas máquinas, uma de costura reta e outra de overlock, que serão suficientes para viabilizar a produção de roupas e objetos de decoração. Quem é a proponente Susana Maria Valle Rabello é estilista com atuação no mercado de moda há cerca de 20 anos. Frequenta a região de Brumadinho desde então e mora em Casa Branca há quatro anos. Antes de consolidar sua trajetória profissional, se dedicou ao tricot e ao desenvolvimento de produtos artesanais, como macrame e tingimentos manuais, o que lhe possibilitou, ao atuar em importantes fábricas do mercado de moda mineiro, participar ativamente de todos os processos produtivos (desenho, costura, modelagem, comercialização) .

Libraries (Ոչ ակտիվ) – KRIA: The Icelandic Constitution Archives

2019-09-11T00:00:00Z
In 2011, Iceland rewrote its constitution using a uniquely and historically open process. It reshaped the dialogue on how a population can use available technology, consensus building, and civic engagement when reinventing the governmental processes supporting the needs of their constituents. What resulted was a proposed constitution that was affirmed by a public referendum. However, the Parliament has yet to ratify the proposal. Eight years later the effort is still alive and well, gaining traction and interest globally. Yet there’s a threat that this historically relevant process will disappear without documentation. Bits and pieces of this whole process have been kept in a variety of formats and locations. With proper documentation this process can be a valuable resource for generations to come. Much of what went into making this proposed constitution a unique and relevant document can be preserved and made readily available to all. Because it was the first crowdsourced national constitution in history, there hasn’t been a blueprint on how it should be cataloged…until now.

What our grantee has to say: "Our goal for the project is to create a preservation practice for complex digital assets that can be replicated by others documenting constitutional reform processes and civic deliberation through multimedia.. We will create a video summary of the project’s process and an animated instructional map. The video will cover major milestones in the teams process and will also be made available as a dissemination element through short segments on the project’s social media pages. In this we are building a visual road map for those who would like to emulate the archives structure." What our trustees have to say: “Documenting a historical blueprint for participatory democracy is a rare occasion.” “The creators of KRIA approach this subject with both passion and a critical analysis.”

Adelaide – Establishing SA's Only Hatter in the CBD

2019-09-11T00:00:00Z
I'm the only hatter in South Australia, and one of very few in the country. I've been chugging along with my craft and business well enough thus far, but it's become increasingly apparent that it is high time I find myself a space in the Adelaide city to use as an operating workshop, potential showroom, and a place for meeting with clients which isn't a private residence. As it is, I am looking at co-op creative spaces such as The Mill as a starting point, as this is likely more affordably achievable for me at this stage, and I also think it will be beneficial for building new relationships and creating potential collaboration by being more directly within a creative community.

Cleveland, OH – Motogo Mobile Shop Class

2019-09-10T00:00:00Z
Who we are: Motogo builds confidence by providing a hands-on introduction to real world problem solving & critical thinking through the tangible avenue of motorcycle maintenance. What we do: We bring the generations of skill-building once learned in our grandfathers’ garages into the classroom. Through an industrial arts curriculum centered on a getting-your-hands-dirty application, students learn proper tool usage, measurement, calculations and small engine operation and maintenance. Why we do it: Higher learning and vocational careers should not exist as mutually exclusive entities. ALL students benefit from understanding how machines work. Many schools don’t have the resources to offer shop class in-house, or transport students to an off-site location. Motogo meets students where they are. Why should anyone care: We provide an opportunity to open up the world of possibilities for students, building Cleveland’s future workforce through the mindset of entrepreneurship, complex problem solving, and machine learning.

Seattle, WA – What The Funk?! An All POC Burlesque Festival

2019-09-10T00:00:00Z
SEATTLE, AUGUST 22-24, 2019 -- The inaugural What the Funk?! An All POC Burlesque Festival will be taking place in the Emerald City on August 22-24, 2019. What the Funk?! is produced by Puckduction in association with The Stay Up late Show*. Featuring 50+ performers over the weekend, What the Funk?! will be hosting three shows plus three days of classes. With headliners Egypt Blaque Knyle, Nox Falls, Tre` da Marc and The Luminous Pariah, Pacific Northwest featured performers Ms. Briq House, The Shanghai Pearl, spICE! and Isaiah Esquire as well as special guests, Foxy Tann, The Boss of Burlesque, this festival is a celebration of all things funky! The opening night gala will take place at Queer/Bar on Capitol Hill with nights two and three at the historic Columbia City Theater, hosted by Rebecca Mmm Davis. Tickets are currently on sale through Stranger Tickets and Brown Paper Tickets. "What the Funk?! will be a celebration of funk music and the art of burlesque,” says co-producer Mx. Pucks A’Plenty, “this festival was conceived as a show idea in early 2018 after I thought about doing a classic burlesque number to a Stevie Wonder song, but realized it wouldn't count as a classic era song choice. This got my wheels turning and What the Funk?! was born. I couldn’t be more thrilled about bringing this festival to life here in the city of my birth.” What the Funk?! is the first all people of color burlesque festival in the Pacific Northwest and is a historic event not only in the burlesque community, but for the city of Seattle to be the home of this inaugural event. Representation matters and this festival hopes to raise the visibility of POC performers. About What the Funk?! An All POC Burlesque Festival What the Funk?! An All POC Burlesque Festival is a three day performing arts event highlighting burlesque and the performing artists of color in the burlesque communities all over the world.

Digby Neck, NS (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Denton Decor

2019-09-10T00:00:00Z
Awesome Digby Neck is pleased to announce that Denton Decor is the winning project for the second grant award of $1000. The grant will aid Jody Denton, a resident of Little River, in the creation of a local business offering painting and landscaping services to Digby Neck and beyond. Success stories are key in encouraging others to take a risk with a good idea, big or small, grand or simple. We are excited to see a new small business start up on Digby Neck. We need people to see that this kind of entrepreneurial initiative is key to keeping families in homes and kids in classrooms, helping Digby Neck develop as a community that offers a variety of services to its residents year round. You can contact Denton Decor at 902-834-2187 or jodydenton@outlook.com

Cleveland, OH – I'M ALIVE YOU BASTARDS AND I ALWAYS WILL BE

2019-09-10T00:00:00Z
Our awesome project is the establishment of Nightbloom Theatre Company with the world premiere of I’M ALIVE YOU BASTARDS AND I ALWAYS WILL BE, by Roxie Perkins, who wrote the libretto for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winning opera p r i s m. As two young directors who have been working in the professional theatre field and seen the barriers to entry facing young artists, we founded Nightbloom Theatre Company to provide significant opportunity to young artists for professional development. In doing so, we are committed to the abolition of the unpaid internship by paying all artists who work on Nightbloom productions a fair wage. Nightbloom Theatre Co., helmed by co-artistic directors Casey Venema and Colin Anderson, is a theatrical collective with the mission to produce plays, both new and canonical, that bolster the voices of marginalized persons in our contemporary world, and to strengthen the Cleveland theatre community by providing significant artistic opportunity to emerging artists beyond what can be achieved in an internship or assistantship. We believe strongly in the importance of work created in response to oppression and political turmoil and are committed to producing work that centers and is written, performed, directed and designed by women, people of color, LGBTQ people, and other marginalized voices. These pieces are historically overlooked and deemed "too risky" for professional production. In an effort to encourage new and diverse work in Cleveland, we prioritize taking risks in all of our productions, both scripted and devised. With a wicked sense of humor and horror, I’M ALIVE... implodes conventional theatrical form in a wrathful celebration of the ugliness of preteen girlhood. We will be staging the piece from October 2nd to October 6th, and it will be produced in partnership with Maelstrom Collaborative Arts. Their generous in-kind sponsorship, providing the space at an extremely low rate, has ensured the feasibility of I'M ALIVE...

Awesome Without Borders (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Village Launch Party

2019-09-09T00:00:00Z
My older adult neighbor is a widow and lives alone. She is having a hard time keeping up with the small jobs around the house and is no longer driving. She's afraid she'll have to leave her home and community. This makes her very depressed. She learned of Mount Mansfield Villages and joined. Now she can request rides to doctor's appointments, the bank and the community lunches. She has volunteers available to perform small jobs around her house and yard. And, everyday someone calls her to ask her how her day is going and check if she is ok. We are a grassroots volunteer organization in three small villages in Vermont. We have come together to assist our aging neighbors to stay in their homes and our community for as long as possible. We have worked the last 3 years to develop a "Village Model" non-profit (see www.vtvnetwork.org which is the national Village Network website). Our Village offers memberships to anyone over the age of 50 in our area. The annual fee is $240 but no one will be refused membership because of financial constraints. So that is our awesome project. We currently have 23 members and 27 trained and vetted volunteers. Our hope is that Vermont will be filled with Villages helping their neighbors to stay in the communities and provide them with opportunities to remain connected, learn new things, and teach others.

San Francisco, CA – Wildfire Progression Sculptures

2019-09-09T00:00:00Z
My sculpture series “Wildfire Progression” transforms wildfire data to reveal the shape of a wildfire as it grew and changed shape while it was burning. The first in this series shows the Cedar Fire in San Diego, currently the third largest in California’s history. Wildfire is an incidence in nature that is a necessary process for a healthy forest ecosystem, and at the same time is publicly perceived to be harmful destructive from the human perspective. By visualizing a wildfire as a beautiful and evocative form in motion, we can reconsider our position on wildfire and our relationship to our surrounding environment. So far I have modeled two fire sculptures in clay - the Cedar Fire (images included with this submission) and the Camp Fire from 2018 which burned the town of Paradise, California, and caused terrible air quality all over the Bay Area for several days. I have sourced data for several more recent fires, and the ultimate goal is to have the series cast in bronze so they can be exhibited and shown to the public. (The clay versions are too delicate to exhibit broadly.) Sculpture is an aesthetic language I use to bridge the gap between reason and emotion. Drawing from history, narrative, emotional affect, and the senses, my artwork synthesizes scientific research from information into knowledge through an intently subjective human experience. I have often worked in partnership with scientific organizations in developing the data concept for an artwork, and in this case have been interfacing with CalFire to source the fire progression GIS data.

Ann Arbor, MI – Flint Culture Mural

2019-09-09T00:00:00Z
I am a teaching-artist with the Youth Arts: Unlocked program in Flint, MI. We work with justice-involved youth in the local juvenile detention center as well as when they are on probation, in alternative schools. We are contracted by the city of Flint to teach arts programming to them. We offer everything from Spoken Word to Visual Arts, with the V.A. program for the girls' wing of the juvenile detention facility being the newest addition to our programming. My colleague and myself are the girls' V.A. teachers, as well as for the kids on probation at Gear Up. We have found that our kids have a hard time motivating themselves to do creative projects, as they have not always been encouraged to "think outside the box" (sometimes quite literally when they are incarcerated). In an effort to encourage participation, we had the kids brainstorm what a good motivating incentive could be and they came up with: a mural. They love doing the art classes in school, with us, but when they leave sometimes their connection with art goes away. Their idea was to paint a mural in the community of their school so that they could see it every day, and feel pride in their creativity as a group. I feel that this will maximize their involvement in the program, which is not only good for us, but good for them, as well as good for the community when they are not out re-offending. The kids decided that anyone who participates in the majority of our classes this summer would be eligible to work on the mural in the fall. It is our hope that we will be able to fund this with grants, as our supplies come out of pocket as sub-contracted employees.

Vegan (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Facilitating Poor Women to Live Vegan Lifestyle

2019-09-09T00:00:00Z
Through this project we will motivate, train, and facilitate 30 women entangled in feminization of extreme poverty and hunger as well as homelessness and function as the breadwinners in their households to live an independent veganism lifestyle. To this end, we will fully support the needy women to self-sufficiently satisfy their veganic food and herbal needs by managing organic farms on pots upcycled from waste plastic bottles and bags. Through this unique organic farms we will facilitate the needy women to farm veganic food crops and herbal crops for their daily self-consumption (in order that they get rid of hunger and morbidity) as well as for sale (in order that they get rid of absolute poverty). To that goal, we will train and subsequently facilitate the 30 women to: (1) Produce organic fertilizers from food waste and leaves collected from homes, marketplaces, restaurants, gardens, etc. in order to satisfy their pressing need of fertilizers for their organic farms while cleaning up the environment; (2) Manage bean sprout farms on pots made of waste plastic bottles and bags by which each of them will endlessly produce 10 kg of bean sprouts a day; (3) Manage potato and sweet potato farms on pots made of waste plastic bags by which each of them will endlessly harvest 2 kg of potatoes and 2 kg sweet potatoes a day; (4) Manage organic farms of other crops such as gingers, turmeric, lemongrass, celery, garlic, onions, mushrooms, carrots, chilies, and tomatoes on pots made of waste plastic bags; and (5) Recycle the overused pots of the waste plastic bottles and bags mixed with shredded plastic litter from surrounding areas into efficient, better, and selling-well bricks for sale or for building new homes.

Newburgh, NY – Barbershop Reading Program

2019-09-08T00:00:00Z
Located at the intersection of community and identity, the barbershop provides an important, if perhaps unexpected, venue for dialogue and civic engagement. Last Fall, Frederick Douglass in Newburgh Project joined forces with several barbers to conduct a series of talks on citizenship called Barbershop Conversations, all of which were well attended. Inspired by the barbershop’s position as cultural and social hub and encouraged by the success of these talks, we aim now to use the energy generated by a citywide movement centered around increasing civic engagement to embark on a project that will have a lasting impact on the youth of our community, and we believe barbershops will be the perfect strategic locations for a constellation of small libraries, making good books more accessible to our youth. Spearheaded by Gabrielle Hill, we plan to put libraries in 5 barbershops across Newburgh (Krispy Fresh Cuts, Razorsharp, Faded, Cross Cutters, and The Lion Den), meeting the community where they already are and helping facilitate education outside the classroom to foster a sense of civic engagement through literacy. In short, here’s how it will work: we’ll supply punch cards and books (with age-appropriate themes of citizenship, bullying, responsibility, and acceptance); our partnering barbers will hand out the cards, punching them for every book read in the barbershop; when the reader fills up their card, they’ll get a free haircut! Frederick Douglass’s first significant step toward freedom was learning how to read, which he did not from a textbook in a classroom, but on the street, from neighborhood children, when no one was looking. Our goal is simple, but, we believe, fundamental: put more books into the hands of our community’s youth, for in learning how to read, we learn how to be free.

Erie, PA (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Awesome Sounds Ice Cream Social

2019-09-07T00:00:00Z
Fat Lenny's is a quirky shop in Erie's urban core that offers ice cream, bubble tea, candy, and toys. It's located on West 8th Street, which is in the midst of being revitalized by Our West Bayfront. Scottie, the proprietor of Fat Lenny's, proposed the creation of the Awesome Sounds Ice Cream Social, an event that offers live music and free ice cream to residents living in Erie's lowest west side. The event started at 1:00 pm and continued until 6:00 pm. There was a consistant line out the door all day, with lots of smiles being shared.

Philadelphia, PA – IMPACT Philly Projects-901 Education

2019-09-06T00:00:00Z
IMPACT Philly is a project in which inner-city students from Philadelphia tackle social issues that they find meaningful and work toward impacting them in a positive way. IMPACT Philly takes an empathy-driven, human-centric approach to problem solving. By using the design thinking process, students learn to create solutions based on the needs of their beneficiaries and develop an understanding of the iterative process of tackling complex social challenges like homelessness, sustainability, food insecurity, effects of childhood cancer, etc. In a collaborative setting, our awesome student teams partner with organizations that offer programs to help communities dealing with social causes they care about. Community partners have included: Project H.O.M.E., The Ronald McDonald House, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Catholic Social Services, The USO, and many more. Post-secondary student volunteers from Jefferson University also assist the high school teams, helping them bring their ideas for impact to life. Past projects have included (but are not limited to) creating sustainable healthy food options for inner-city families, designing and developing innovative care packages for the homeless that are housed in handmade weatherproof scarves, building after-school STEM and literacy programs for elementary school students and mentorship programs for preteens dealing with stress. Through experiential learning, we foster the confidence and creativity needed for students to be lifelong problem solvers. The project cultivates young leaders in the community by giving them the tools to make a difference. It has also proven to increase career readiness skills by increasing basic math, literacy and soft skills such as presentation and one-on-one oral communication skills. https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/learning-by-doing-mercy-career-and-technical-high-school/

Philadelphia, PA – Kids and Teens Improv Program - ASAS

2019-09-06T00:00:00Z
To give our students a well-rounded experience, ASAS P&C provides daily learning in the following categories: Health & Wellness; Academic Readiness; STEM Programming; Career Exploration Experiences; and the Visual & Performing Arts. Social-emotional learning is woven into each of these components, ensuring that our youth have the personal growth needed to turn positive changes into lifelong habits. In exposing our students to Visual & Performing Arts, ASAS P&C helps our youth self-express, gain confidence, build empathy, and explore social justice, race, and equity. Art serves as an outlet for emotion, helping students process both positive and negative events in their lives. Currently, we offer classes around music, dance, and visual arts. In the 2019-2020 school year, we would like to offer improv comedy classes in two of our school sites. With this, students will explore short-form improv with each class building upon skills learned in the previous courses. Through the class, students will learn key improv rules such as “yes, and” as well as how to develop characters, create objects and environments through miming, and expressing emotions. At the end of the 8-week course, students will have the chance to perform what they’ve learned to their fellow classmates and families as well as school and program staff. Through our holistic approaches to extended day learning, ASAS P&C helps our students transform the way they see themselves and their ability to impact the world. ASAS P&C gives youth access to valuable after-school programming that puts them on equal footing with their peers and sets them up for long-term success. While the proposed program itself is an art-based program, improv comedy is a natural fit in our academic and social-emotional learning components as improv assists in building self-confidence, stage presence, active listening, critical thinking, and community.

Raleigh, NC (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Open Form

2019-09-06T00:00:00Z
Mission Statement: Activate public spaces through an interactive form that invites participation and fosters collaboration between participants to help stimulate curiosity and collaboration through a shared experience. Vision Statement: To transform shared experiences in public spaces and inspire creativity on a collective and individual level. We’ve all walked through or relaxed in a public space before, But how can those spaces enhance the way people engage with the space and with each other? Open Form is an interactive public space installation. The concept is based on a flexible platform composed out of undulating triangles, shifting its topography as multiple people interact with it, each person affecting how others behave on the platform. Through participation, the person is aware of their own spatial senses as well the others around them stimulating a sense of collaboration and dialogue in a public space. Through a year long research done, there is a need for new creative spaces in open public places. This is substantiated in research done through literature reviews, public surveys, several community events, and interviews with local artists and program directors of various art institutions. The public expressed the need for meaningful interactions with other members of the community, interest in new experiences such as interactive and engaging activities, and creative programming that involves learning opportunities. Most of all, the public expressed that creative public spaces should be accessible, inclusive for all communities in Raleigh and support the needs of these communities to be expressive in a creative way.

Glasgow – Amma Birth Companions

2019-09-05T00:00:00Z
Having a familiar face by your side when you are giving birth is something that most women take for granted. We are a progressive new voluntary organisation established to provide trained, nurturing birth companions to women who face birth alone. We will work in Glasgow with women who are overcoming significant adversity on their journey to motherhood, initially asylum seekers and refugees, a group who experience significantly poorer than average birthing outcomes (Royal College of Gynaecology, 2015). Focused one-to-one support will be complemented by an open-ended, user-led mums’ group. Drawing on our extensive experience of providing birth companionship to this group (we are based on a tried and tested model), Amma addresses an acute gap in service provision. Amma’s team have worked extensively with or come from this client group and understand how to respond to women's needs and strengths. We have strong connections in the sector. Watch our film on www.ammabirthcompanions.org.uk to see more. 'My first birth didn’t go as I envisaged. I was induced twice then went for an emergency C-section. It was the most traumatic and painful episode I’ve ever been through. I went through this all by myself. I had no support and even after the delivery when I went back to my residence, I was so weak and developed an infection. I was in so much pain that I thought I was going to die. I couldn’t even lift my daughter up to feed her. I wish I had a birth companion who would have been there for me and my daughter at that stage of my life that should have been joyful was a bitter experience. I don’t want other women to go through what I went through, no matter who we are, where we’re from or what life has thrown in our path in the past” (Refugee Volunteer)

Marin, CA (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Alebrije Bicycle Competition

2019-09-04T00:00:00Z
In the 1930s Pedro Linares had a fever dream of fantastic animals dancing about screaming the nonsense word "Alebrije!" Disney used alebrijes as spirit animals in the movie Coco, bringing these creatures to us in a new way. In Santa Rosa, Dia de los Muertos is one of the few celebrations that blurs our ethnic lines and unites us as a community. Alebrije Bikes are part piñata, part bicycle, and 100% fun. They don't exist yet, but with the right effort they could become an integral part of our local celebrations. What I've noticed as I've worked on this project is that financially well off students will undertake the project just because it's fun, while students who participate in the assisted lunch program, for example, are motivated by the idea of winning a prize.

Columbus, OH (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Mobile Espresso Bar: Prison Training Unit

2019-09-03T00:00:00Z
Hello! I'm the director of Coffee Crafters Academy here in Columbus. Our mission is to support individuals in their transition out of incarceration through training and employment in the specialty coffee industry. We have an exciting project in the works that I'm hoping you all can help support! We are in the process of designing and building a custom mobile espresso cart that will eliminate our need to renovate existing spaces within crowded and resource constrained prisons. The mobile unit will be a fully functional espresso bar, certified by the local health department, to prepare and serve a variety of specialty coffee drinks. These mobile units will enable us to expand our barista training operations into more correctional facilities around the state. I receive 2-3 phone calls a month from prison officials requesting that we bring our program to their facility. However, we have been unable to meet the demand because of the immense resources and time needed to renovate physical spaces within correctional facilities for our cafes to safely operate. Also, these mobile units could be manufactured by our team of restored citizens thus giving them a job and a means to continue to grow our impact and support more individuals in their journeys out of incarceration, for good.

Atlanta, GA (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Aging 100

2019-09-02T00:00:00Z
Aging 100 is a group of millennials, seniors, caregivers, non-profits, volunteers and physicians with a mission of helping all senior citizens reach the age of 100 and beyond. Our goal is to not only help improve the quality of life for seniors in local communities but aid them as they navigate the journey of aging. Our mission is achieved by providing community-based support to seniors through our Healthy Aging and Life Enrichment (HALE) program, 100 Red Bags Initiative, granting an unfilled wish to deserving centenarians and researching best practices from the longest-living cultures in the world. Our most popular program is our 100 Red Bags Initiative. With our red bag initiative, we offer underserved seniors a red polypropylene drawstring bag filled with items and material that will keep them physically and mentally active. Items can include word search puzzle books (simple cognitive activities for brain stimulation), a stress ball (to help manage or prevent arthritis), and one light resistance band/cord (strength training to improve balance, stability, mobility and coordination). Each red bag also includes toiletry items. This recyclable and water resistant bag can also be reused to carry food, medication, clothing, blankets and much more (Contents of each bag may vary depending on the supplies readily available).

North Minneapolis, MN – Black to the Future

2019-09-01T00:00:00Z
Mother and Daughter artists, Amoke Kubat and Keegan Xavi will work with students at PYC Alternative School in North Minneapolis. We will engage students in her Art Historian class into a multi-genre discipline of Literature and Science/Science Fiction experience. We will guide students to create their own Emergency Strategic Plan and a customized BUG OUT BAGS to address immediate and future emergency or natural disaster survival needs. (YO MAMA, LLC is donating 20 backpacks) We will do a collective investigation of the book, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. In this Afro Futuristic story, the main character prepares a survival bag as she faces a dystopian future. It is our intention to inspire students to prepare for their futures in the changing landscape of North Minneapolis. They will create their own stories of Northside Street Survival.

North Minneapolis, MN – #DeepEndChallenge

2019-09-01T00:00:00Z
I’m a local artist and I created a program inspired by one of my songs called #deepend that details the parallels between black women being in unhealthy relationships and not knowing how to swim. This birthed the #deependchallenge; a five-week, inter generational swim program for black women 13 and up. Each session is three hours with the first half being dialogue applying the swim principles to life and relationships. The second half of the session are professional swim lessons led by swim coach DeAnna Smith. The ultimate goal is to achieve a new level of wholeness by equipping black women to swim mentally, emotionally and physically.

State College, PA – Life Lessons & Libations

2019-09-01T00:00:00Z
Schoolin Life is a weekly podcast, a bimonthly blog, and occasional live events that empowers women by extending the coveted “girlfriend” conversation and cultivating a community of women who are passionate about education, storytelling, and personal and professional development, based in State College, PA. The proposed project "Life Lessons and Libations" takes us from our listeners ears to building community in person through with a series of small group sessions with intentional story telling and therapeutic conversations about our lived experiences.While all are welcome, " Life Lessons and Libations" is rooted in the empowerment of women of color, Black women in particular and provides intentional space for them to be in community with one another, to be vulnerable and discuss their shared experiences particularly those that are impacted by living in Centre County. I have revamped this idea from my previous submission to center "Life Lessons & Libations" around a book club, engaging participants in text written by women that allows them to use the topics in the text to explore their own personal stories. Quarterly we would meet to discuss a previously chosen text and discuss how the themes in the book related to our own lived experiences.. Women would be encouraged to reflect aloud in the circle and use self reflection journals given to participants to tell their own stories related to the theme.

Alaska (Ոչ ակտիվ) – Sila

2019-08-31T00:00:00Z
Produced in collaboration with Alaska Native People, this feature-length contemplative documentary film illuminates the impact of the climate crisis in coastal Alaska, raising questions about climate justice, cultural survival and reconciliation by exploring two fundamentally different ways of relating with the world.

Disability – Raising Menstruation Pads 4 Girls with Disability

2019-08-31T00:00:00Z
Menstruation is very under-addressed in WASH and development interventions hence resulting in half the population with unmet needs. The taboos, myths, and barriers in Uganda and discrimination of having a disability and being female, result in unsafe, unhygienic, unconfigured WASH facilities, lack of access/affordability of pads, unhygienic washing/drying/storing practices, lack of knowledge, on-going health issues, and an atmosphere of shame having a negative effect on the girls’ self-image and worth. What our grantee is saying: "To be awarded the Awesome Disability Award is a life source for someone like me .it has been always my dream to get funds so that one day I can implement my project, not knowing how to get help or who to go to in order to be helped. My project is set to raise Menstruation pads for girls with disability whom I saw that most of the time were left out in this case and this award gives me the opportunity to go for it’.’

Gloucester, MA – Lighting for the Future

2019-08-30T00:00:00Z
The GHS Auditorium technology is in desperate need of an upgrade to the modern era. With the invention of USB drives and LED lights, the current system at GHS that uses floppy disks is desperately out of its time. Through updating the technology in the GHS auditorium to the ETC Nomad, the GHS Theatre program can become a host school for the Massachusetts Educational Theatre Guild (METG) Drama Festival celebration. As a host school for Drama Fest, schools from around Mass would come to Gloucester to share the short plays they have been working on and get feedback from professionals in the Boston theatre industry. Because ETC is the industry standard, most schools have lighting boards that would allow them to save their show as an ETC compatible file, allowing them to bring their already designed show to Gloucester with ease. This update is also entirely portable, allowing all of its pieces to be packed safely away into a backpack to travel, should GHS theatre want to take their Drama Fest show to another school, or should the auditorium get renovated.