Awesome Foundation - Projects

Rio de Janeiro (Inactive) – O Embaixador

2016-01-27T00:00:00Z

Vinte mil soldados usaram suas armas na 2a Guerra Mundial, em nome do Brasil. Um brasileiro usou apenas a caneta para salvar milhares de pessoas, em nome da Vida. Luiz Martins de Souza Dantas foi embaixador do Brasil na França de 1922 até 1944, quando salvou milhares de refugiados do Holocausto. Em 1939, desobedeceu oficialmente o estado ditatorial e anti-semita brasileiro, e se arriscou emitindo incontáveis vistos ilegais e assim salvando milhares de vidas, sem pedir ou receber nada em troca. Receberam seus vistos diplomáticos desde os mais pobres até famílias de grandes banqueiros; artistas, atores, jornalistas, e centenas de perseguidos pelo racismo. Em 1941, foi submetido a um inquérito político pelo governo brasileiro por “emitir vistos irregulares a indesejáveis”. Souza Dantas nasceu no Rio de Janeiro em 1876, e morreu em Paris em 1954, sem deixar herdeiros. Desde então, sobreviveu na memória de poucos enquanto esteve esquecido pela história do Brasil. Braziiian Ambassador Luiz de Souza Dantas helped save the lives of thousands of refugees during Second World War. LSD, as he’s nicknamed by the director, saved not only jews, but lives of all those whom we don’t know or care where they came from. He did it “from the goodness of his heart”, says an FBI report and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, where he is recognised as a ‘Righteous Amongst Nations’. Even with all this, he was erased from the history books because of the Brazilian dictatorship at the time, which even sued the Ambassador for issuing illegal diplomatic visas to save lives. The documentary, which we are shooting, tells the story of this amazing human being, while showing some of the lives he helped nourish throughout the World. We have recently shot in Europe, and we are now preparing the material and transcripts, and editing the interviews.

Rockport, MA – Bee Safe! Bee Natural!

2016-01-27T00:00:00Z

Melbourne (Inactive) – Community Workshop: On The Move

2016-01-27T00:00:00Z

NORM is a volunteer run community workshop. The Awesome Foundation has helped us out in the past, helping us run wood and metalworking classes aimed specifically at providing practical building skills to women, youth, asylum seekers and the unemployed. These workshops have been super successful. Our community has been growing and with it the list of skills that can be taught and learnt here; we have since seen our repertoire expand to include things such as 3D printing and ceramics. We believe in grass-roots, peer-to-peer education. We also know that not everyone fits mainstream education methods and institutions. All of this considered, we want to keep offering alternative pathways to learning. We teach and help others learn to teach. We have seen all sorts of art, design and social projects come to life here! HOWEVER… development is upon us. Our building is soon to be reborn as an apartment block and we have to move our workshop. Here is where we’d love your help once again. We’ve found a new home but it needs renovating. We need to build new spaces, including studios (important for both our community and a sustainable revenue stream) and spaces for ‘clean’ crafts such as 3D printing and sewing. We also want to expand our workshop’s potential to house more groups and their various disciplines by adding a spray booth, dust extraction and a panel saw. Our wish list needs your help to come true! Help us run better, safer, more Awesome workshops into the future.

Twin Cities, MN (Inactive) – Start-Up Art Grant for Hassan Noor

2016-01-26T00:00:00Z

Hassan Noor, born in Jubaland, Somalia, in 1940, and has lived in Minneapolis for 14 years. I met him recently through his daughter, Farhia, who acts as our interpreter (Hassan speaks just a little English, and I speak just a little Somali). Hassan loves to draw, is self-taught as an artist, and has been prolilic in drawing for his entire life. He draws images from memory of back home, showing livestock, houses, clothing, food, traditions from nomadic Somali life. Also, he draws his life here in MN, showing people learning English at ESL class, buying food at the market, riding the bus, and praying at the mosque. My project is to bring Hassan a supply of large archival art paper to draw on and to allow his art to last longer, and to assist him to frame ten of his large drawings. I have already 'sold' the idea of his exhibit to Wing Young Huie at Third Place Gallery, in Minneapolis, for Hassan's first art exhibit. With the aid of this grant, Hassan will have his first exhibit at age 76!

Portland, OR – Taylor Electric Retrospective

2016-01-26T00:00:00Z

The Taylor Electric Retrospective will be an interactive art event and public engagement platform, documenting and displaying community-contributed photos, videos, media, and artwork of the former ruins of Taylor Electric in SE Portland. Taylor Electric was a burnt-out industrial building that served as a unique hub for street art for the past decade. A short documentary film exploring the space’s history and impact will be premiered at the event. The event will include an interactive temporary free-standing wall where the public can reminisce, reconnect, and share memories by leaving personal “eulogies” for Taylor Electric. An archival project website will provide a centralized space to document Taylor Electric’s history and art, and serve as a platform for the community to share their lived experiences interacting with and creating this unique public art gallery. The central focus of the project is to create spaces for public learning and dialogue. At the event, local artists, community leaders, and academics will lead discussions engaging with the community on various topics such as the politics of public space, insurgent public space-making, and the impacts of development, gentrification, and urban change on the arts community. The goal is to build relationships and facilitate dynamic dialogue between a diverse and often under-represented group of communities to help increase their input and impact on public decisions that involve art and urban development. With this project, we aim to capture and document some of this unique Portland history and energy, and encourage people to explore, appreciate, and positively engage with the spaces around them.

Washington, DC – Design.District: Identity Lounge

2016-01-26T00:00:00Z

Design.District fosters economic empowerment through creativity, knowledge and design to children who do not have the means or access to tools to enhance their artistic abilities. Identity Lounge is a creative workspace, dedicated to providing a unique designing opportunity for 16-20, African American/ Hispanic students. The program fosters the entrepreneurial spirit, through an “identity” process that involves creative expression, cultural awareness and self-motivation through fashion design and free enterprise. Of the 140 students we've affected, none have had basic to no art skills and to watch their creative confidence grow and become small business owners is so rewarding. Identity Lounge is so much more than just an afterschool art project. It is a safe space for marginalized young students of Coolidge SHS with an interest in the design and apparel industry to utilize the expertise of African American leaders in the fashion and business world and apply newly attained skills in a classroom setting. The program challenges some of the issues present as a result of economic injustices in communities of color, consists of a curriculum catered to the individual creative needs of each child. Young students of color participate in beginner to advanced fashion design classes, where they develop cooperative leadership skills and that will help restore economic opportunity. Our goal is to create a space where the students WANT to be a refuge, where mentors and opportunity are accessible and where physical hunger doesn’t trump creative and financial success. It is in this space that we strive to initiate a creative business platform and opportunity for young minority artists. This coming year, 2016, will also be taking our students on field trips to other successful designer work spaces and NEW YORK FASHION WEEK, to see with their own eyes

Kingston – Kingston 2 Kingston

2016-01-26T00:00:00Z

We are a group of around twenty students that attend Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School in Grades 11-12, with the exception of one student who attends Regiopolis Notre-Dame . Every year, students submit information and essay towards why they should be chosen for the mission trip; only a fraction of the people are chosen. Over the past years, the Holy Cross mission teams travel from Kingston, Ontario to Kingston, Jamaica for a week of helping various troubled places around the city. Our group will visit St. Monica's Home for the Abandoned Elderly, Riverton City Early Childhood Centre, St. Margaret's Human Resource Centre, and participate in a number of activities. The difference between our group and groups from the past is that we want to leave a special mark from our Kingston community to theirs. We are hoping to build a house for a local family through an organization called Food for the Poor. We want to build a house in a day for a family that will move as soon as we are complete, taking them off the streets. The house build has never been done before as the money has never been able to be raised but this year we have a great group of willing students who have raised money for the house build but we have not reached goal and the fundraising for the house build has stopped.

Louisville, KY (Inactive) – Four Paws Two Hearts for Veterans

2016-01-25T00:00:00Z

The Americans with Disabilities Act protects the access rights of a person with a Service Dog and does allow for a person in need to train their own dog if they meet the requirements outlined in the law. We will provide professional guidance, support, and funding to help make this possible for qualified veterans in need. We invite them to apply with a dog they already have or we will select a specially talented rescue dog for them through our partnership with the Kentucky Humane Society. Through this program, we will continue the mission of our company: Helping dogs in need help people in need. Each veteran will attend a 60 minute private class and a 90 minute group class each week to work towards their Public Access Exam - the final exam for a working service dog team. We divide our participants into two classes - Phase 1 for basic manners and obedience, and Phase 2 for service dog tasks and public access work. Each veteran will be matched with one of our trainers as a training mentor and be given unlimited phone and email support in addition to class time as they work towards their goals. By committing to training their own dog, participating veterans can get started right away without sitting on a waiting list for years. They will also be armed with the necessary knowledge to train their next dog when it is time to retire the one trained in this program. We find that teams who train together tend to become stronger and have a deeper appreciation and understanding of one another as they navigate the world together. Professional dog trainers who believe in the importance of this program are collectively volunteering up to 40 hours a week of their time. We are building this as a pilot program that we plan to run for a minimum of 12 months to serve disabled veterans in the Louisville area. After our first year, we will call on our national network of service dog trainers to start new chapters of this program that would help serve veterans nationwide.

Louisville, KY (Inactive) – Light it up!

2016-01-25T00:00:00Z

People know that they can come to us for help. Many of our members are extremely poor, including a dozen or so that are homeless or living on the very edge of homelessness, and have problems we can't solve. One problem we would like to take a crack at, though, is the too-common occurrence of biking in the dark, practically invisible, because bike lights are just too expensive. Not only is night riding without bike lights illegal, it is also incredibly dangerous: while most accidents happen during daytime (when the most cycling happens), accidents at night are more likely to be fatal. But so many people run that risk nightly, and who can blame them when lights can cost as much or more than the bikes themselves? Unfortunately, we don't get many donations of lights, and even at the wholesale price that we get through our parts distributor, buying them new to distribute widely is beyond our means. Our current solution is to buy $3 caution lights from a local hardware store and duct tape them to the bike - this is a bandaid fix, since the battery life of these devices is poor, and the duct tape doesn’t hold up for long against the vibrations and jolts that are routine parts of urban bike riding. We can do better!!

Austin, TX – Shakespeare: REPRESENT

2016-01-25T00:00:00Z

Although Shrewd Productions has long focused on new work, the company has always had a powerful passion for the Bard. (Shrewd's very name is a Shakespearean reference: "She was damnably curst and shrewd.) It seems only fitting that a company named for cursed Kate should fly the banner for Shakespeare with an eye to gender parity and diversity in casting. Hence, Shakespeare: REPRESENT. The first production of the series, As You Like It, will run at Trinity Street Theatre from February 19 - March 6, 2016. The cast is comprised of 9 women and 5 men, playing 24 roles, with most actors playing cross-gender. However, Shrewd has gone beyond just trying to open up a few more roles for women. With director Lily Wolff's concept, the production explores the fluidity of fluidity and ambiguity of gender that was truly at the heart of Shakespeare's work. Expect to see an As You Like It that stays unwaveringly true to Shakespeare's text, but unlike ANY you've ever seen before.

Rockport, MA – Buddy's Bench

2016-01-25T00:00:00Z

For our first chapter outreach initiative, the Trustees of Awesome Rockport have purchased a “Buddy Bench.” We are donating the bench to Rockport Elementary School in honor of Buddy Garlick, who served as Caretaker at the school for many, many years. The Awesome Rockport bench will be one of two Buddy Benches donated to Rockport Elementary School this spring in honor of Mr. Garlick. The other bench is being donated by a 3rd grader at the school who was motivated to do something special in response to Mr. Garlick’s passing last year. Buddy Benches originated in Germany and have now been placed in schools around the world. These benches are meant to be symbols of inclusion and kindness in the schoolyard. As we all know, recess can pose a slew challenges to youngsters. Sometimes a friend is absent for the day. Other times a student might feel excluded. The Buddy Bench is a resource for students that helps facilitate compassion and friendship between students on the playground. It is a symbol all students come to understand as a call from a classmate for a buddy.

Seattle, WA – Edible Optics and Hands On STEM

2016-01-24T00:00:00Z

My awesome project is centered around edible optics! Did you know that you can make fiber optics and lenses out of Jello? I developed a fun, hands on lab for kids to do at our local observatory that lets them hold, play with and bend a variety of Jello optics to investigate how light interacts with matter. An awesome grant would help me expand the activities and the reach of my program. During my project, the kids were set up with converging and diverging lenses as well as a long, thin, "fiber optic" rectangle. With low powered lasers they were able to investigate how the lenses bent the laser beams. They found that for a converging lens their laser, placed at three different areas, always pointed to a certain point, the focal point! They also noticed that with a diverging lens there was no focal point. Students used a jello fiber optic to physically see their laser beam bouncing off the walls and back into the jello, allowing the other end to glow, even if it was bent side to side or pulled up off the paper. This was a fun and engaging lab, with kids getting a great first time experience with optics and lenses. I would love to expand this program to reach more kids in the community and also to bolster the experiments they are able to do with the edible optics. With a meager $25 budget I was able to provide this edible optics experience for ~25 kids. With more funding I would be able to build parallel laser boxes to help them see the action of lenses in another way, purchase lasers of different colors to learn about absorption, and buy more Jello and cutters to supply materials and training to other public libraries, schools or observatories that are interested in running the program! My goal is to bring fun and engaging hands on STEM projects to my community, and with your funding I would be able to enrich the program and reach many more future scientists.

Newmarket – Gardening in Kindergarten

2016-01-22T00:00:00Z

This project is to help my students learn the importance of cultivating plants, specifically food plants. They will be able to grow plants from seeds and seedlings, learning what plants need to grow and thrive. By growing food plants (carrots, potatoes, lettuce, etc.) They will develop an appreciation of the hard work that goes into producing the food they eat, as well as understand components and benefits of healthy eating. The following list of benefits to children from gardening are from the Better Health Channel website (betterhealth.vic.gov.au) Responsibility – from caring for plants Understanding – as they learn about cause and effect (for example, plants die without water, weeds compete with plants) Self-confidence – from achieving their goals and enjoying the food they have grown Love of nature – a chance to learn about the outdoor environment in a safe and pleasant place Reasoning and discovery – learning about the science of plants, animals, weather, the environment, nutrition and simple construction Physical activity – doing something fun and productive Cooperation – including shared play activity and teamwork Creativity – finding new and exciting ways to grow food Nutrition – learning about where fresh food comes from.

Ottawa – Hintonbeasts, the Guardians of the 'burg

2016-01-21T00:00:00Z

January’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Brenda Dunn and Shawn MacDonell, to support interactive art that the entire Hintonburg community can build and play with together. "I will be placing small monster sculptures in Hintonburg businesses — Hintonbeasts," Brenda explains. "The monsters will all be different and each will come with a unique story. If you find them, you can tag them on Instagram and share where you spotted one. You'll also be able to read their individual stories and see more photos of them out and about in the neighbourhood." "Loam Clay Studio has signed on to partner with the Hintonbeasts," Brenda continues, "and I will be hosting a day for people to come out and make a monster guardian of their very own. People will upload images and stories for their own monsters to the site, and suggest places that a guardian might be needed." Brenda and Shawn are thinking about other kinds of interactivity as well — a 'Burg Beast Bingo game, collective decision-making around where Hintonbeasts "looking for work" belong, 'Burg Beast apparel made by and sold at local clothing stores, and more. Brenda is an artist who learned a lot of busy words during a masters in English literature, but prefers the visual to verbal when it comes to communication. Shawn is the founder of a creative agency, and spends his time kicking people out of their comfort zone. You can follow their progress on Instagram, as well as on Brenda and Shawn's websites.

Miami, FL – Junk to Funk Sewing Classes for ages 8-12

2016-01-21T00:00:00Z

My idea is to offer a trade training that everyone would benefit and at the same time teach on how to recycle old garments, advertising banners and create usable wearable art. Our schools are no longer funding any kind of home economics classes and the aftercare for these ages are not created with a thought to encourage a new skill that will more than likely be needed as adults. Its really just the most useful and easiest way to create and have an actual real life result of your work and the joy that it gives the children is just wonderful. In my neighborhood I have tried several times to get together with city program managers for the parks and even submitted proposals and had two officials not even show up for the meeting, however I dusted myself off and kept looking and here you are. During the summer months I assist my best friend at the Miami Shores Community Center with her Sewing Camp and we came out in the Miami Herald this past summer and I know my area needs something like this.

Antigonish, NS (Inactive) – Townhouse Session Players: Food Bank CD Project

2016-01-21T00:00:00Z

We would like to use our music as a way to help feed our community; to turn the Scottish Gaelic metaphor "Puirt cho math gum bio' tu gan ithe" (Tunes so good that you would eat them), into reality. Each Sunday evening since The Townhouse opened in Antigonish, a corner of the pub has been reserved for people to join together and share their love of music in a traditional acoustic Irish Session with Scottish and Cape Breton influences. An invitation to all is listed on "thesession.org" web site along with similar sessions around the world. Over the past three years, musicians from far and wide have joined this table in the corner: a fiddler from New Zealand, an Irish piper who was on an episode of Friends, a harmonica player from Germany, to mention a few. Yet, week after week there is a solid corps of locals who look forward to this musical feast at the end of their weekly routines. They come from varied backgrounds, ages, and musical knowledge. Most would not know each other if it were not for this session. They play for no money, but for the love of music with likewise souls. This AWESOME group of local people would like to expand the good this session does for them, into something that will benefit our AWESOME community. We would like to make a recording of some of our favorite music we play and offer it as a CD to be sold at The Townhouse and other local venues with 100% of sales going towards the Antigonish Food Bank. The Townhouse is a community-supported pub that serves locally-sourced food as much as possible. The owners and staff are involved in the local food security movement, and many of their patrons are involved or concerned as well. There are many in our community who depend on the Food Bank to feed their families. Unlike the delicious bounty the Townhouse menu offers to its patrons, these people's choices are limited to what the Food Bank is able to supply. We support the Food Bank and... We hope to use tasty tunes to fill local tummies!

Bend, OR (Inactive) – Canine Care Kits

2016-01-20T00:00:00Z

A Canine Care Kit is a reusable bag that contains dog food, dog treats, a collapsible bowl, a foam sleeping pad, and a kennel lead. The goal for Canine Care Kits is to help homeless people meet the basic needs of their dogs. Many homeless people in Bend have pet dogs. Homeless people have help from soup kitchens and other non profit groups but there are few services for pets of homeless people. Dogs give their owners companionship and unconditional love. Dogs also give the owner a sense of responsibility and contribute to the owners' overall well being. The kits could be distributed at the Family Kitchen, Bend Community Center, and Central Oregon Veterans Outreach, Initially, I would like to make 50 kits with the help of friends and family. In the future, I would like to get donations from local vendors to make more kits if needed.

Rotterdam – Childify the city

2016-01-20T00:00:00Z

We see the city every day. We pass the most beautiful icons like de Markthal, de Erasmusbrug and de Euromast and look at them as they are. We observe, photograph and talk about these icons. But all from our own perspective. What if we could see these icons through the eyes of a child? The most pure form of perspective there is. What I would like to do, is set up a competition with 5 elementary schools located in Rotterdam. They will be challenged to create a poster (A2) of the icons of Rotterdam. How they do this, is up to them. But it has to be a child's point of view. Each school can submit three posters per gradegroup (1/2, 3/4/5 and 6/7/8). Out of these 45 posters, 10 will be chosen. Name, age, school and icon will be added in text and the final result will be shown to Rotterdam. Each winning poster will be shown on 5 different locations, giving everyone a view of our Rotterdam icons through a child's eyes. The ultimate goal is obviously to create visibility for both Rotterdam icons as for the art education of children. It will both be a wonderful way to visually promote the city and it's icons, as to motivate children to express themselves in an artistic way.

Gloucester, MA – Fiesta People's Mural

2016-01-19T00:00:00Z

The end of each June, the City of Gloucester hosts the Saint Peter’s Fiesta, one of the most important cultural events on the North Shore of Massachusetts. I propose to finish painting and hang a large mural of the Fiesta People and their magic – past and present. I intend to paint these people in a way that is worthy of their incredible strength, love, and pride – at their best and most triumphant. I have secured the wall at the Seacoast Dental Building, 27 Commercial Street, facing Beach Court, down the Fort. There are four 6’ x 4’ MDL panels. I have also secured from Jason Turley, the dentist at Seacoast Dental, the big empty room out back with an industrial sink, to do the spray painting and finish the mural. This “Fiesta People’s Mural” is built to last. Students from the North Shore Vocational School primed and sanded the panels, front and back, twice. I am using top-shelf outdoor acrylic paint, a new Devilbis spray gun, and the varathane coating will protect the mural for a long time to come. I have been working on the subject material – the Fiesta people - for a long time now. I feel that this mural will portray the various events of Fiesta with justice and capture the pride and beauty of these people for the citizens of Gloucester and all who come to visit Gloucester. I have been working on this project since 2006. It has gone through several changes, including the number of panels and the location – from the original Intershell behind Captain Carlos to the Saint Peter’s Club to the best place yet – the Seacoast Dental Building. I had a health-related setback, but I feel really good about this now, and I believe that the time is right to go for it. Please help me make this worthy project a reality. It will be a gift that keeps on giving for many years to come for the people of Gloucester.

Boulder, CO (Inactive) – Fishing Academy for Kids from Low-income Families

2016-01-19T00:00:00Z

Our project is to create a standing, free "academy" that introduces children from low-income families in Boulder County to fly fishing and backpacking, in partnership with Trout Unlimited, Rocky Mountain Anglers, and Tenkara USA. Tenkara is a minimalist style of fly fishing brought to the United States by Daniel Galhardo, a resident of Boulder, project partner, and founder of Tenkara USA. Tenkara equipment is both light and small and, thus, well-suited for use when backpacking or hiking. Our project would provide children from low-income families with a free tenkara academy that would include: • tenkara fly fishing lessons (using rods that Boulder Valley ICO would purchase with grant funds) • fly tying lessons (using vices that Boulder Valley ICO would purchase with grant funds) • tenkara fly fishing outings (local) • stream improvement service outings • backpacking trips that feature tenkara fishing Children who complete the academy would be able to purchase at a deeply discounted price a complete tenkara fishing kit of their own so that they could fish on their own. We would also make available to the children, free of charge, a small fly tying kit so that they can tie their own flies. In our experience, there is little or no cultural barrier to fly fishing and, thus, it serves well as an introduction to the outdoors for children who have a little or no exposure to nature. Our goal is to connect children to nature, both to enrich their lives and to create a new and more diverse generation of environmental stewards.

Pittsburgh, PA – Wanna CEEMI?

2016-01-18T00:00:00Z

CEEMI itself can be quickly described as the hardware generator of an instant virtual ensemble that turns any WiFi compatible device – a smartphone, tablet, desktop or laptop – into a collaborative electronic musical instrument on the fly. It was specially designed for the performance of music by groups of people without prior musical training. I envision "Wanna CEEMI?" as a series of flash mobs in different public spaces of Pittsburgh, where passers-by will be challenged to connect their smartphones to CEEMI and take part in a massive creative music workshop/performance led by me. Each event will have as an outcome an original piece of music created on the spot and a videoclip of its performance.

San Antonio, TX – Deeper Thoughts

2016-01-15T00:00:00Z

This project will be white coroplast signs with statements and questions that you don’t expect to face while you’re out and about in your daily commute. These statements and questions get people to think about deeper things other than their daily thought about what they’re going to eat that day or what they will watch on tv. The signs will say, “You Might Die Today,” “Do you deserve your soul?,” “Are you making the world a better place?,” and “Why do you exist?” The signs will have only those questions and statements. I don’t want to promote myself or a hashtag on the signs. I have already seen that people will react on their social media when they see the signs. The signs will be strategically placed at busy intersections or areas that attract a lot of foot traffic, so that the signs are seen by a large amount of people.

Philadelphia, PA – A Paper-Recycling and Paper-Making Project

2016-01-15T00:00:00Z

San Antonio, TX – Urban Farmacy - Wellness Center

2016-01-15T00:00:00Z

Yello! Gardopia Gardens has been blessed with the opportunity to grow on two vacant lots off N. New Braunfels (619 and 615). The vacant lots are the site of the highest crime rate in San Antonio, so we were approached by SAHA to help with crime prevention through environmental design (CPED). Since Gardopia does not own a physical location, this is the opportunity for us to be located in a high commerce area, creating visibility for us!!! As a wellness non-profit organization, we will fulfill our mission of promoting health and wellness through gardening! In addition to the raised beds you are accustomed to in a garden, we plan to have a 6-day a week juice bar and produce market! We don't need much to serve smoothies, juice, and tea all day, sell soil/mulch, and generate sales for garden installations. These three services/products are not currently offered on the near eastside of San Antonio, so we will have the chance to literally grow a healthier community, in turn growing wellness!

San Antonio, TX – Write Away!

2016-01-15T00:00:00Z

Catholic Charities After School Program serves our youth in grades K-12 grade. The students come from large, limited income families residing on the Westside of San Antonio (zip code 78207/78237). The program provides these students with a free, safe place to come after school to do homework, arts and crafts, character education, outdoor recreation, and build positive peer and adult relationships. The program aims to improve quality of life for the children and strengthen families. This is the only free After School Program on the Westside of San Antonio and it places a high emphasis on family involvement to ensure the success of each child in the program. The Write Away program will provide these students with an opportunity that they may not otherwise have: to learn how to write a book, poem, or short story over an 8 week writing course. The final project will result in a published book of the students work. This will be in partnership with Gemini Ink, a local non-profit that provides hands on writing workshops to people of all ages. This writing workshop will focus around Bullying in Schools and how the students can overcome it. This past summer, the middle school program was awarded with the Team Up Challenge where they identified that Bullying was a major issue within their school. They developed a self-made video to express their thoughts about bullying and how to overcome it. Write Away will expand on the issue of bullying and allow the students to take what they learned last summer and transform it into a work of writing. This gives our students a way to be a voice to the "voiceless", namely those other young individuals in our San Antonio community that face bullying and need encouragement. The hope is that this will start a community wide movement to raise awareness to bullying and build character among our youth. The After School Program wants to share hope and courage because we want kids everywhere to not just be ordinary- but extraordinary.

Asheville, NC (Inactive) – Signs of Acceptance

2016-01-14T00:00:00Z

Signs of Acceptance is an idea that initially came from my wife, Jamie, a teacher at TC Roberson High School in south Asheville. She's the sponsor of a club focused on giving gender non-conforming students a safe space as well as promoting awareness of trans and non-binary issues. Playing off the popular "Ampersand" model of pop culture based shirts, the signs were created for for teachers at TC to let their students know that their classroom is a safe space. Rather than a lame, xeroxed print out, SOA's signs are themed in a school's colors and look and are printed on archival grade cardstock, perfect for laminating. Steve and Jamie have provided the art free of charge to schools, churches, and other agencies around the country in a digital format wherein teachers are often paying out of pocket to get the posters printed.

Chicago, IL – 4Us Girls Club Self-Image Zine Project

2016-01-14T00:00:00Z

Our awesome project is a series of topics to empower girls in the form of an artful zine publication. A zine is a mini magazine that is creative and informational. The zine features original art projects from participant in our girls program. FOUS Youth Development Services provides school-based programming for girls, grades sixth through eighth. The topics for the girls program vary year to year. New schools who get the program for first time, there are seven standard topics. This includes self-image, self-esteem, self-confidence, courage, perseverance, empower and vision. In addition to topic specific sessions, we create youth-led projects. Two of the projects really resonated with students. Hence, the birth of our zine project. The first project is the I Am a Unique Human Being art project. This project consists of the gathering of magazine images …body types, fashion, styles etc. Girls are to find the perfect lips, eyes, hair along with fashion etc. They then glue these images together to create the perfect girl. Naturally, they are surprised to find the portrait is not what they anticipated. It’s very abstract. Our message to the girls…having the perfect body etc. is not the answer, but seeing their beauty. The art project speaks volumes. It continues to create opportunities to have real discussions with girls regarding mixed messages about body image, ethnic stereotypes and so forth. The second project the girls enjoy is creating a Zine. There have been many topics explored using zines including health, relationships among others. A benefit of the project is students find their voice on issues that matter to them. Since we’ve gotten great results from the two projects, we combined them. Every year we have up to four new groups of girls exposed to the program. We saw the opportunity to recreate the enormous impact from these two projects. As a result, creation of seven zines is now a standard curriculum for the girls club. The response have been very good

San Jose, CA – Speaking Out Loud

2016-01-13T00:00:00Z

Our school is in its 15th year of operation and this year we have added a co-curricular component to our day. For the first time in our school history, we have a group of dedicated students who created a "Rebel Writing Club." This club will create and publish our first ever school newspaper and will design and deliver a more sophisticated yearbook using technology. Our students live in households where English is not the primary language spoken. Our students live in worlds where no one they know publishes books or writes for a newspaper. Our students are middle school kids who yearn for someone who will listen to what they have to say. Our students are using this "Rebel Writing Club" as a way to "Speak Out Loud" and use their voices and talents to reflect their innermost desires, struggles, and dreams. Their yearbook will put their tech skills, design skills, and photography skills to use in amazing ways as they memorialize our school year. Our brand-new school newspaper will give them reporting, writing, researching experience - and will open doors in their minds to the possibilities that lay before them. Our students are amazing, and they are doing amazing work. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to dream BIG dreams and ask for your partnership in this work.

LA South Bay, CA (Inactive) – 1197 torbots

2016-01-13T00:00:00Z

TorBots FRC Team 1197 is a FIRST Robotics Competition team from Torrance, CA. Founded at South High in 2002 by Michael Ellena, our team has expanded to support youth robotics among all Torrance high schools, and Richardson Middle School. TorBots is student run and organized, aided by extraordinary mentors and amazing parents. Our current membership consists of over 80 students. During the build season that starts in January, students work at the South High School Robotics Shop after school and on weekends. Students develop and utilize their knowledge and skills in programming, mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as business proficiencies in management, public relations, finance, fundraising, and community outreach.

Awesome Without Borders (Inactive) – 2016 Awesome Foundation Summit

2016-01-13T00:00:00Z

We're holding a summit in March 2016 for Awesome Foundation trustees from around the world to meet and share their experiences and ideas for microphilanthropy! We'll hold working groups to work on projects to strenghten the global Awesome community, and have a party to introduce our former grantees to Summit attendees and the public. This is the fourth year of the Awesome Summit, and the first time it's being held on the West Coast!

Boston, MA – Crazy Giant EYEBALL bike lights

2016-01-13T00:00:00Z

There's a big difference between being *visible* and being SEEN. So how can bike riders improve their chance of being seen? My solution is to hack basic human psychology. Research shows that people behave more ethically under the watchful eye of … anything that looks like an eye (http://www.wired.com/2010/12/eyes-good-behavior/; http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0082055). And everybody notices eyeballs - the way you know when someone is staring at you even if they are way out in your peripheral vision. The best bike light to be SEEN is a pair of watchful glowing eyes! But you can’t buy crazy awesome lights like these, you have to make them. THE PLAN: Hold a Public-Make-Your-Own-Free-Giant-EYEBALLS-Bike-Light event. People will come and build their own lights for free. People can mix it up with fun colors (green/red/yellow eyes) and templates (cat/cartoon eyes); each hand-made light will be an expression of the builders creativity. With about 24 square inches of illuminated glaring eyes, passing drivers will undoubtedly SEE people biking and under the watchful eye –> they may drive more nicely too. Our hope is that by peppering the community with these watchful icons, drivers will learn to be more attentive to ALL cyclists. We are well connected within the Boston cycling community and will promote the event across all local cycling forums.

Tilburg (Inactive) – jong en oud, Tilburg blijft goud

2016-01-12T00:00:00Z

Tilburg is een stad die in de afgelopen 100 jaar flink veranderd is. Van een pieter vrede plein tot het vernieuwen van de spoorzone, allemaal veranderingen. Onze jongste jeugd heeft geen enkel idee wat voor pracht pareltjes Tilburg vroeger had (en nu nog steeds heeft) en hoe het er eigenlijk allemaal uitzag. Het idee is om oude foto's van Tilburg op plekken te plaatsen om te zien hoe de stad veranderd is. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan een oude foto van de Heuvel of van de oude markt. Dit idee stopt niet alleen bij het plaatsen van oude foto's door de stad nee. Zoals we weten zegt een foto meer dan 1000 woorden, maar ja.. waar zijn die 1000 woorden dan? Mijn idee is om basisschool scholieren op pad te laten gaan met ouderen die hun hele leven al in Tilburg wonen. Zo leren jong en oud wat van elkaar en van Tilburg. Het idee hierachter is dat ouderen een leuk uitje hebben en hun verhaal over 'hun' stad kunnen vertellen en kinderen wat leren van Tilburg en van de verhalen en ervaring van een ouder persoon. Daarnaast zou ik naast de foto's een klein verhaaltje laten plaatsen, het verhaal van... Een trotste Tilburger verteld een klein stukje over een belevenis of plaats van de foto.

Dubai (Inactive) – Keeping Hope Alive in Yemen

2016-01-09T00:00:00Z

Economic Development through Micro-grants Partnered with Awesome Yemen new initiative and Yemen our Home we aim to build small businesses out of big ideas throughout Yemen CAUSE: Yemen has a long, rich history, its people naturally hospitable, good, kind, and hard working. Yet, Yemen has emerged in the past year as a nation in turmoil. The major city of Sana’a and Aden have been under siege. Although still small, a remote part of Yemen is inhabited by Al Qaeda. The future of Yemen is in jeopardy and we must act now. As believers in Yemen, we aim to provide access to creative, community building opportunities, to extinguish the potential for extremism and violence that can occur in dire circumstances before such a movement has a chance to create a foothold. Time is of the essence. We know what’s happened in Levant and the slippery slope that can lead to a point of seemingly no return. We can’t stand by and wait for the same fate to befall our Muslim brothers and sisters of Yemen. WHY IT MATTERS: One way to combat violence is to create positive and accessible avenues of opportunities and give people outlets that provide hope and boost their spirits, all things considered. USAid and others are no longer able to support program funding for development in Yemen which will leave a large gap to fill for socially oriented programs and projects in the nation. Approaching one year of violence and attacks, 65% of Yemen’s 26 million lives below the poverty line 51% obtain some form of aid aid 31% are on full aid, unable to fend for themselves Citizens who are in despair are in desperate need of not only dietary nourishment and everyday supplies, but also spiritual nourishment, hope, positive opportunities, especially if fundable projects by Yemenis for Yemenis can help generate income, put food on the table, keep the water running. This is where we (all of us) come in.

Sarnia (Inactive) – Family Wellness Day

2016-01-08T00:00:00Z

The Lambton Mental Wellness Centre is holding a Family Day Awareness about Mental Health and Wellness. We are planning on having the movie Inside/Out playing, a guest speaker panel and family fun for children of all ages. We are planning on having the Painted Cat there for face painting, someone who does balloon creations, a kids' yoga class or a laughter yoga presentation. We will also have other community agencies at this event to help promote the services they offer in our community as well. The focus is on fun but with the underlying message being about mental health, increasing awareness, and signs of mental health concerns. Our ultimate goal is to decrease the stigma attached to mental health and about people who live with mental health concerns. We are doing this on Family Day, February 2016 to try to allow as many families as we can to attend this fun FREE event.

New York City, NY – Gender Amplified

2016-01-07T00:00:00Z

Gender Amplified is a movement that aims to celebrate Women in music production, raise their visibility and develop a pipeline for girls and young women to get involved behind the scenes as music producers. Ebonie Smith, founder and chief curator of Gender Amplified, was inspired by her own experience in the music industry as a producer, singer-songwriter and audio engineer to address the lack of parity between men and women in the industry. In creating Gender Amplified, Smith seeks to provide a platform to empower women with the skills they need to succeed in the music production roles that are typically held by men. Through their ongoing work within and beyond the music industry, Gender Amplified empowers women to develop their career potential with the skills they need. And by gaining its 501(c)(3) status through its Awesome Foundation grant, Gender Amplified can grow its network of donors and sponsors along with its impact. Why We Think This is Awesome By organizing public events that foster healthy dialogue about the role gender plays in the music making process, Gender Amplified endeavors to give voice to a subculture of women who are using music technology to create their own music and perpetuate their unique identities. Check out this video from Gender Amplified’s 2013 Summit to hear directly from the women that Gender Amplified has impacted. Gender Amplified has one music production workshop scheduled to take place at The Frederick Douglass Academy on March 31, 2016. Interested in learning more, attending an event, or getting involved as a volunteer? Go to http://genderamplified.com/ or contact the Gender Amplified team at info@genderamplified.com.

Awesome Without Borders (Inactive) – We want a Dumpling Emoji/Emojination

2016-01-06T00:00:00Z

Dumplings are one of the most universal cross-cultural foods in the world. Poland has pierogi. Nepal has momos. Russia has pelmeni, Japan has gyoza. Italy has ravioli. Georgia has khinkali. Korea has mandoo. Jews have kreplach. Argentina has empanadas, and China has potstickers. Yet, there is no dumpling emoji. This despite, there is a pizza emoji, a hamburger emoji and a taco emoji (which Taco Bell likes to take credit for with their change.org petition which got 33,000 signatures). Why? Emoji are currently controlled by the Unicode Consortium, which only 11 full voting members, each who pay $18,000 a year for the privilege. Eight of the members are U.S. multinational tech companies: Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Yahoo. The only other three full voting members are the German software company SAP, the Chinese telecom company Huawei and the government of Oman. And it takes anywhere from 18 months to two years for a single emoji to move through the approval process, as it also needs to receive buy-in from ISO (yet another international standards body). Unicode is a standards organization. The folks on the committee which oversees emoji are mostly male, mostly American, and overwhelmingly engineers. (The photo I include is the Unicode Technical Committee) They are not the best folks to determine a rapidly evolving, global, visual language. Not only are we submitting the process for a dumpling emoji. We want to open up the discussion of emoji policy and what it should look like going forward. We are forming a grassroots organization called Emojination to give voice to regular folks on issues of emoji. Our motto is "Emoji by the people, for the people." Emojination serves as the infrastructure to let normal requests for emoji (like giraffe, or bacon) bubble up. It is the non-engineering part of emoji. It thinks about representation whether it's single-family emoji, transgender emoji, or whatnot.

Minas Gerais (Inactive) – Cozinha experimental Roots Ativa

2016-01-04T00:00:00Z

O Roots Ativa é uma comunidade Rastafar I localizada no Aglomerado da Serra (periferia da cidade de Belo Horizonte), que atua em várias frentes como permacultura, sustentabilidade e a Cozinha Roots Ativa. O projeto vem absorvendo jovens e principalmente mulheres da comunidade que se encontram em total vulnerabilidade social. A ideia é organizar toda a cadeia produtiva dos produtos. Hoje existem seis pessoas na cozinha. Os produtos fabricados são artesanais e integrais, vegetarianos e veganos. São comercializados em feiras e eventos e entregues em alguns locais para revenda e residências. Os recursos estão sendo usados para realizar melhorias nas instalações da cozinha. Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rootsativa

Ann Arbor, MI – Black Nirvana

2016-01-04T00:00:00Z

Black Nirvana is the brainchild of The Black Opera, an interdisciplinary artist collective from Michigan. The goal of Black Nirvana is to explore social and racial issues through a multi-linear series of performance vignettes with an intense hip-hop driven score. This project exists on a mobile stage and includes a custom digital projection system to elevate the performance experience. Individual mobile audio capabilities will be supplied to the attendees to enhance interactivity throughout Black Nirvana. Throughout the performance experience, participants will be invited to wear headphones. All will engage in call-and-response, chants, dancing and movement that coincide with visual and audio cues during Black Nirvana in demonstration of collective unification. Select elements of Black Nirvana will filter into a live global social media experiment, which will allow an on-demand view of participant thoughts and reactions, fueling new theories of change around the world. Black Nirvana is a two hour mobile performance experience and will tour select locations throughout the USA in Fall 2016, with sights on international motion in 2017. The project is seeded in hip-hop music, video projection and visual arts, and will include an interactive social media element during each performance experience. Black Nirvana will utilize music, technology, and genuine hard work to provoke new a new school of thought with art as a catalyst for socioeconomic elevation.

Atlanta, GA (Inactive) – Mobile Learning Dome/Planetarium

2016-01-03T00:00:00Z

The city of Atlanta is an awesome platform to make a difference in the lives of our youth. It is the goal of Operation Teach to provide educational, engaging, and entertaining academic and seasonal shows to schools, daycares, libraries, hospitals, and churches. An awesome element to add to our shows would be a mobile planetarium or learning dome. The planetarium would be a perfect learning "virtual field trip". Imagine your favorite music and characters coming to life around you. Viewing our educational and entertainment programs inside the learning dome allows for a unique immersive experience. In the learning dome students will enjoy more than just surround sound but viewpoint video projection surround as well. Programs will correlate primarily with PK-8th grade curriculum and cover a broad range of subjects. Based on topics such as social studies, science, language arts, health, and STEM. Kids will want to experience it again and again. As a proven agent of change, I take pride in making decisive changes to grow students by providing them with innovative opportunities to immerse their minds into learning.

Ann Arbor, MI – Techno Poetics

2016-01-02T00:00:00Z

Techno Poetics is a multidisciplinary collaborative between Detroit Techno artists and local poets. Musical genres such as lounge drum and bass, and dub step all have roots in Detroit, yet many people still limit the city’s musical impact to Motown. I will lead local artists, in producing a performance that pays homage to the electronic dance movement and explores the contributions that Detroit DJs have made to it. Word and sound artists will weave research, personal narratives of Detroit residents and original poems into an original presentation. Meanwhile, youth poets with the InsideOut Literary Arts Project who participated through a summer Techno Poetics intensive will continue produce poems and reflections on Detroit’s post-Motown music legacy. The work of the poets, the sound artist and the youth will culminate in a public performance called Techno Poetics in May of 2016. We will present a performance of the pieces generated in this program at 1515 Broadway weeks prior to the Movement, Detroit's premier electronic music festival. Techno Poetics will provide spaces for the citizens of Detroit to reflect on its global cultural influence on contemporary music. Detroit’s underground music has been a major export of the city, having expanded to touch every habitable continent in the world and Techno Poetics is a way of celebrating that rich past.

Raleigh, NC (Inactive) – Raleigh Film Underground

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Raleigh Film Underground was born out of a desire for alternative film to have a place in our city. As independent theaters close and industry funding is cut off, the message seemed to be that there isn't a market for filmmaking or independent movie fans. This couldn't be further from the truth, in fact the growth of our city is mirrored in the growth of our incredible creative community. It's important to invest in these people, which is what this project sets out to do. Each month, a new film and venue will be chosen and announced via social media. Fans of John Waters, Gus Van Sant, Lisa Cholodenko, Cassavetes, Antonioni, Maya Deren, Gordon Parks, and Pedro Almodóvar (just to name a few) will find something to love, and curious fun-seekers may discover new interests. Folks looking for free fun, film buffs coming out for one of their favorites, creative boundary-pushers getting a fix: there's a lot for our great city in a humble evening of movie-screening. Often it is the conversation, laughter, and reflection that comes from sharing a film together that makes it the most valuable. Like going to any movie, the Raleigh Film Underground will show previews (one per event). Regional filmmakers and video artists are welcome to submit a short work or music video to screen before the feature. This series aims to support both the people here who love film and those that create it.

Raleigh, NC (Inactive) – Beyond The Wall

2015-12-31T00:00:00Z

Shaw University, in partnership with the City of Raleigh and Downtown Raleigh Alliance, will transform hundreds of feet of concrete walls along the Shaw University campus with murals that explore the history of the university and its relationship with the city. The goal is to bring public art to the South Park neighborhoods that aren’t often the focus of beautification projects. The area sits on the edge of a wave of downtown redevelopment. This project is informed by relevant community initiatives such as the South Park East Raleigh Heritage Trail and the Raleigh Murals Project, and will be an early success for the implementation of the Downtown Master Plan and Blount Street-Person Street Corridor Study. The Blount Street Mural Project will create visible change in the South Park neighborhoods that are infrequently the focus of beautification projects. Much more than just a public art initiative, the Project will serve as a catalyst for conversation and activism about Shaw University’s restorative role in a continuously evolving urban landscape. It will further Shaw University’s responsibility as an agent of change, stimulate dialogue about critical local issues, facilitate and encourage economic investment, and build a bridge of connection and understanding between Shaw and its stakeholders. The mural will be complemented with a series of community forums throughout 2015. These forums will provide a beckoning platform for sharing of ideas and perspectives that will shape the imagery and themes to be included in the mural design. A panel comprised of representatives from Shaw University, Raleigh Urban Design Center, Downtown Raleigh Alliance and Raleigh’s Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department, as well as community representatives, will review all submissions and select the final design(s)Scott Nurkin, founder of The Mural Shop in Chapel Hill, is the selected artist. Awesome Raleigh's Grant will go toward the overall funding goal of $135,000.

Paris (Inactive) – 99: promouvoir le documentaire en 6 langues

2015-12-31T00:00:00Z

99 est un média vidéo à but non-lucratif qui diffuse des documentaires. Gratuitement. En 6 langues. 99, c’est le média des invisibles : les 99% de la population que les médias traditionnels ne nous montrent pas. Les invisibles, c’est vous, c’est nous, ceux qui sont hors-champ. Nous croyons au pouvoir du documentaire : élargir les esprits. Nous voulons proposer des documentaires de qualité à un large public, sur internet, gratuitement et dans sa langue maternelle. Nous voulons aussi accompagner des réalisateurs à diffuser les films fantastiques qui dorment dans des tiroirs ou qui sont peu visibles sur internet. Nous pouvons les adapter gratuitement en 6 langues pour les rendre massivement visibles. Et demain, nous accompagneront aussi des réalisateurs grâce à des campagnes de financement. Notre objectif : ajouter les langues arabe, russe et turque à notre plateforme afin de toucher un public toujours plus large. 99 is a non-profit video media that broadcasts documentaries. For free. In 6 languages. 99 is the media of the invisibles : the 99% of the population that traditionnal media doesn’t show us. You are the invisible, we are the invisible. We beleive in the power of documentaries to open minds. We want to offer quality documentaries to a large audience, online, for free, and in its mother tongue. We also want to help directors to broadcast the amazing films that sleep in drawers or are little visible on the internet. We can adapt them for free in 6 languages to make them massively visible. And tomorrow, we will support directors through fundraising campaigns. Our goal : add the arab, russian and turquish languages to our platform, to reach an even larger audience.

Orlando, FL – Pop-up Movie Screenings in Vacant Lots

2015-12-31T00:00:00Z

Alaska (Inactive) – Books About Town

2015-12-30T00:00:00Z

Our club is partnering with the Friends of the Homer Public Library to place small libraries throughout the community in public gathering places. Sites will include: coffee shops, teen centers, computer cafes, the hospital, child and adult advocacy center, behavioral health center, Haven House, REC Center, and ultimately some neighborhood yards. Books will be made available free of charge to whoever wants one and will include both fiction and non-fiction. Users will be encouraged to replace the books they take to keep the libraries full and functioning. We have a grant of $1,055 from Rotary District 5010 that we must match in order to complete this project. We are asking for a one-time grant of $1,000 to help us meet this match. Grant money will be spent on materials to build these libraries and, in some cases on buying bookshelves of varying sizes, as well as the purchase of books for initial stocking. After the initial installation, our club will continue to keep the libraries functioning as one of our ongoing community projects, with no need for soliciting additional funds.

Awesome Without Borders (Inactive) – The Youth and Gender Media Project

2015-12-30T00:00:00Z

The Youth and Gender Media Project is a series of four short documentaries about transgender and gender expansive youth that are being used throughout North America in thousands of classrooms to create safe and inclusive environments for youth across the spectrum of gender identity and expression. The first two films of the series, I’m Just Anneke and The Family Journey came out in 2011. The second two films, Creating Gender Inclusive Schools and Becoming Johanna are in post production. We have raised much of the money to complete the films as well as some funding for audience outreach and engagement. However, we are still raising funds for some crucial aspects of post production, including music composition, color correction and sound mixing. This is where The Awesome Foundation could make a big difference. The film for which we are requesting funding is Becoming Johanna, a half hour documentary that tells the story of a trans Latina from ages 16 to 21. Johanna confronts bias at school and rejection at home. Eventually, her mother’s lack of acceptance lands her in foster care. Fortunately, her foster family, with a gay son, loves and accepts her for who she is. Around the same time, she enrolls in a new school for students who haven’t succeeded elsewhere. The school’s principal is a butch lesbian who takes Johanna under her wing and helps her to graduate, get scholarships for college and thrive. The film demonstrates that love and acceptance is the crucial ingredient for transgender youth to succeed in life. We are excited to get Becoming Johanna into the hands of the educators, families and other audiences who so desperately need to see portraits of successful transgender youth. The film’s trailer on our youtube page has nearly 300,000 views and we are in discussion with broadcasters like HBO and PBS’ POV about a broadcast in 2017. To watch the fine cut, please go to: vimeo.com/144590637; PW: Johanna.

Louisville, KY (Inactive) – Black History Matters

2015-12-29T00:00:00Z

Black History Matters is an educational campaign that promotes African American history in our communities. I, Taylor Little, started the campaign last year during 11th grade, after I realized how negatively the omission of this history affected my childhood. I started connecting the dots about how the omission and often inaccurate or partial truth of our American history in classes causes our students to be unprepared to discuss current events, race issues, or even know where half of the things they own come from. I started a petition to the Kentucky Education Committee asking that require in-depth African American history in our American classes. This ensures that all students get this very valuable information. The campaign also works to promote history within the community by hosting events and doing local speaking engagements. I am currently in the process of working on a proposal to the Muhammad Ali Center requesting that they will be the advisors of the program and house the Black History Matters Council of Students next year. Right now, I am the head of the foundation and am currently on my way out the door due to graduation. I am hoping to give the campaign to the Ali Center so that more students can get involved and be the new faces of the campaign, while also having a supportive adult administration. My future plans for the organization is to host a professional development session for teachers across Kentucky to teach the history to them so that they can pass the word along in their classrooms. It will also highlight resources teachers can use in their classrooms. If all works out, this professional development session will become a paid for session by the JCPS school board. The campaign has a website that gives supporters updates about what is going on. It also has a resources page that gives people links to information about Black history based on the topic because we cannot wait for government action and we must initiate the learning ourselves.

Louisville, KY (Inactive) – Steam Exchange

2015-12-29T00:00:00Z

The Steam Exchange wants to launch the 2015-16 school year of weekly Youth Vision Committee meetings! The Youth Vision Committee (YVC) is a group of 8-10 mostly middle school youth who live, worship or learn in the Smoketown neighborhood and choose to spend an hour and a half of their Friday nights becoming community art leaders. Members maintain their group budget, learn a variety of artistic processes, and lead community art projects. Youth are empowered to use art as a tool to develop leadership skills in their community. Last school year, the Steam Exchange led 31 YVC meetings and YVC members led 3 community art events, teaching adults and peers how to screen print. For one of these events, YVC partnered with Bridge Kids International to host a screen-printing party at Zephyr Gallery. The YVC taught over 50 community members of all ages how to screen-print. YVC youth gained clear sense of pride and empowerment and 100 bags were printed for incoming youth refugees. YVC members became expert screen printers and tried their hands at bookbinding and pinhole cameras. 60-70% of participating youth do not have other access to visual art programming. Meyzeek Middle School has 2 art teachers for 1,100 students and the recent closing of the Presbyterian Community Center has left no other community art programs in the neighborhood. Now that the YVC has been established for one year, many of the students have developed skill and confidence in several media. YVC youth have the tools needed to see their own idea to fruition. In the past, the Steam Exchange organized the events that the YVC youth participated in. However, during our November-January session, the YVC members will work together to create their own project that will positively impact the Smoketown community. This will provide the youth with a whole new level of leadership, empowerment, and ownership.

Lusaka (Inactive) – Tishange Mbewu - Urban Agriculture

2015-12-22T00:00:00Z

“Tishange Mbewu - Urban Agriculture in and for the ghetto” is a project of organic bag gardening in Bauleni compound (Lusaka) aiming at empowering vulnerable women. The bag gardening technique is adapted to slum context: it is cheap and done with reused materials, it requires few water and no ground soil, it provides vegetables on doorstep. A 1m3 bag gives the equivalent of a 5m2 cultivable area. 7 bags cover the needs of a 6-person family for a week. The organic vegetables will help diversify the diet and improve nutrition, but they can also be income-generating. Our objective is to empower women, through training on gardening techniques, health/nutrition and entrepreneurship. A hundred beneficiaries will be trained over a year, spread in twenty-person batches. Each group will follow a four months training program and benefit from the project team support. Thus, women will also break the vicious circle of isolation and feeling of powerlessness. In line with what is already being implemented by the association, the community will also be sensitized to the protection of environment. The main activities are the training and the support in materials (manure, earth, stone…) and advice. The project will also conduct experiments to adapt the techniques to Bauleni's context and develop a network of experts on urban agriculture in Lusaka, in order to spread this innovative gardening technique beyond the direct beneficiaries and Bauleni. The project is implemented by In&Out the Ghetto, a Zambian NGO working on social field since 2012 and aiming at developing the community and empowering the youth. An organic gardener will join the team of experienced social workers as technical manager. "Tishange Mbewu" means “we plant a seed” in chinyanja. We believe that, amongst the seeds which will be planted for this project, many will help feeding the families, but some will also flourish in people’s mind, in order to empower them and broaden their perspectives.

Pittsburgh, PA – Mobile Dyeing Class by the SCFC

2015-12-21T00:00:00Z

The Steel City Fiber Collective will be a makerspace for fiber arts and crafts. Think TechShop but cozier! Pittsburghers will be able to rent space and equipment for knitting, crochet, dyeing, spinning, weaving, and fiber preparation. We will host classes and events for the fiber art community. The Collective will bring collaboration and interaction to typically solitary activities. We believe in the ability of fiber crafts to bring greater well-being to a fast-paced urban environment. Our classes and equipment will be accessible to all ages and skill levels, from kids to seniors at an affordable price. Although several yarn and fiber stores exist in the area, they do not have the space or time to offer in depth learning experiences. We already have a working relationship with yarn shops and guilds in the area. An Awesome micro-grant would provide the funds to buy equipment for a mobile dyeing workshop. With the dye equipment, all we need to hold a dyeing class is running water! We could start providing classes to the Pittsburgh fiber community before we secure our permanent space. After we find our space, we can continue to use the same equipment.

Chicago, IL – The Music Box

2015-12-21T00:00:00Z

The Music Box is a hand-crafted mobile music workshop and production studio. The Music Box will travel to different communities, schools, and organizations throughout Chicago, but mostly focused on areas of the city where there is less access to music education and arts activities. Participants will be invited to play, record, and arrange sounds, melodies, and rhythms - regardless of their skill or performance level - using the Music Box's hands-on equipment and instruments to amplify their innate gifts and creativity. The Music Box will hold recording and amplification equipment, as well as various electronic and acoustic instruments, including many found or hand-made ones. The Music Box will also be equipped with a solar-powered generator and solar panels, to minimize environmental impact and increase mobility. The purpose of the Music Box is to make art more accessible by making it mobile and bringing it to the places where alternative arts activities like the Music Box can have a huge impact. Additionally, by utilizing public community spaces and targeting areas of the city where there is little public investment, I hope the Music Box will also help cultivate safe public spaces for creativity. Lastly, in order to promote the value of inclusive music-making, I plan to release a music project comprised of recordings and arrangements generated by the Music Box's appearances.

Boulder, CO (Inactive) – Boulder Dance for Parkinsons Project

2015-12-21T00:00:00Z

I teach dance to people who have Parkinsons Disease. Ages range from late fifties to 93. All Boulder people. There is no cure, but movement and quality of life are key. And social interaction, that seems to lift spirits as well. I need to continue this program through 2016. I create and lead custom classes, first seated, then out on the floor targeting specific issues facing People with Parkinsons. Why Dance? It develops flexibility, instills confidence. It breaks isolation. It's Fun!