April 22 Laura TRUCE organization, NY public school Transition from ADO to adult How do young adults look back at the work they did as Ado? Harlem Children’s Zone, central Harlem community with high rates of poverty and obesity and asthma and crime. How to transform it? :: education – arts – after school. Students make: television, murals, conferences (youth summit) Integrate arts learning & after school social action learning. Developmental approach leads to college. Charter schools don’t 100% all the population. HCZ majority population at rish. Work from in utero to get kids going to school at grade level. IEP rate @ 15% ~ most are three grades below level. Non evaluated learning disabilities. 11th graders assessed at 3rd or 4th grade reading. Behavior problems. ADD high rate. Instabilities from family disruptions. Even on-grade level – lack of art exposure The kids don’t leave the neighborhood. Adolescence :: environment for dis100%y, individually and collaboratively. • multiple options for entry > material. > ideas. > social dynamic. > activism. Ayisha, from Georgia originally. Taft highschool in the Bronx. Integrated art in history class. Now she’s a Teaching Artist in the program. Insight Center – academic help. City College production, media degree. Spreading art education. Program coordinator. [CTM Dreams Dare to Raise Education through Art and Media] (her organization) • relational issues – help through organization and empowerment to express ideas. • after school program for support, not curriculum but relationship, emotional connection. The need for emotional intelligence. Meet Ado where they are. Let Ado be part of the process. “I mean something here.” “I can be a leader.” “I’m smart.” Putting tech stuff into learning School – something that had to be done – didn’t feed her at all. After school fed her desires for what she wanted to do…it made her realize what she wanted to be. Mixture of hands-on, visuals, auditory. What is the learning experience? (not just empty projects) TRUCE [The Renaissance University for Community Education.] Media literacy. After school. videos, magazines, activism. Reyna – how can the lesson be re-applied? Rise & Shine – poetry & videos, 1985. Laura’s original organization. Kids got involved and then came to school to work with poets. Jubar (sp?) in the studio program at TRUCE. Works with media. Hot Works – after school program, drama, multidimensional. Jalibmusic [YouTube channel] Reyna – peace march: how to behave around the police. How to deal with stereotypes. She got her start when Bill Clinton was running for president and Laura came to her first grade and told her that her voice mattered to the conversation. Video – Around My Block. She saw opportunities and wanted to learn. Rise & Shine had art component. I was 11 yrs old and demanding that people pay attention to what I wanted to do. Bard Early College. Hot Works founder. Give back happens as they get older, but young people hear you even if they don’t understand yet. Laura re: another kid’s story > bad decisions, jail, then writing. Years later the program kids (as adults) retain a sense of themselves as artists and it keeps them going. Survey of 67 former students (participants). all but 4 had been to college. More than half still do art. Ayesha: observing her father’s teaching. Missed cue from student. “Dad that was your in.” The hook and chorus of good writing like a rap song. Lecture about writing an essay. Jaber re: identity as passion. Explore the household. TRUCE as nonprofit: open as much as possible. Part-time. Resourceful – whatever it takes. Internships through HCZ. Interfaith. Always looking for other groups to collaborate with. Currently: 7 host sites for TRUCE. Need to design/provide “experience.” Many reasons for feeling what they’re feeling. There’s no way to pre-judge where kids are coming from. The core: assessing & talking about how they know what they know. How to make school better? Jabar: more men. Reyna: less separation of subjects & goals. Laura: let young people be the teachers. :: Be who you are ~ bring your experience to the table. Reyna: fake it till you make it. Question: how to reach the non-driven? Kids get stipends for being involved. Work is valued. Agreements: code of conduct > rules. How to get kids to buy in. They make a contract and then revisit it at the start of each term. Reyna: don’t assume > ask questions > listen more. Jabar: try to relate. Laura: take them out of where they are but bring the back. Celebrate.

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