Grow From Your Roots
7151 Germantown Avenue
Suite 2R
Philadelphia, PA 19119
Phone: 215.247.2240
Fax: 215.247.0437
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Arts and Literacy for Residential Youth
The Carson Chronicles teaches students how to create and publish their own individual memoirs through intensive writing, reading and peer-critique workshops facilitated by professional writers. Taught by published Philadelphia author Sunshine O’Donnell, Carson Chronicles runs twice weekly for two hours in studio space provided by the school, serving fifteen students per eight-week program period. The first class of each week is a Seminar Session for instruction, skill development, discourse, etc. The second class is a Studio Session, where students work on on-going projects independently (75 minutes) and share their work for group critique (45 minutes). Students are encouraged to read their work aloud as often as possible. The first and last ten minutes of every class is reserved for students who wish to share their own work or any published works that they find thematically or structurally inspirational. Visiting authors also share their own work and experiences.
Studiotrek is a multimedia arts exploration program designed to increase critical thinking and group skills for institutionalized teens placed at Carson Valley School. Under the guidance and direction of a professional art instructor and guest artists from several fields, students will plan, create, critique and exhibit their own pieces at a community exhibition. This intensive six-month course is facilitated by professional artists that will provide on- and off-site lessons on art history, methods and materials for 30 residential adolescents at Carson Valley. In addition to providing weekly workshops on art history and technique, Studiotrek will bring students off campus to visit museums and local professional artists at work. Students will then have guided studio time to create their own multi-media art pieces inspired by what they have learned. This program will also incorporate instruction on art criticism and will culminate in a community exhibition of the students’ work.
Community Education Programs
This program area allows GFYR to serve organizations throughout the Philadelphia region with shorter workshops that expose their constituents to the GFYR approach. These workshops are generally offered to organizations that do not have longstanding partnerships with GFYR staff. They provide exposure to the ways in which we engage participants in hands-on, experiential learning activities, approaching learning with broad personal goals that produce qualitative results with each learner.
Get Into the Green: Community Greening, Environmental Education & Industry Training
Get Into the Green is a 3-month-long stipend-based program running two times annually, with classes meeting three times weekly for three hours per session. Classes will consist of 15 students per 3-month course. The program teaches out-of-school youth how to develop green industry work skills and provide community organizing experience. Under the guidance and direction of Lead Horticulturist Ignatius Weekes, professional horticulturalists, community organizers and educators, students in North Central Philadelphia will learn to develop neighborhood open space assessments, design organic green spaces, organize community meetings for design presentations, work with neighborhoods to refine design ideas, install gardens and facilitate community events that will take place at the G.B. Hill Community Gardens. Students will cultivate skills that will aid them in job searches, interviewing and employment sustainability. Students will write, critique and present polished résumés and cover letters, wear professional clothing during exit interviews and assess their job readiness performance through the use of a daily assessment rubric.
Neighbors living near the G.B. Hill Community Gardens will develop a closer relationship to the green space as they spend more and more time working in it. Additionally, garden events will promote the use of urban green space as a fun and functional space, encouraging a strong sense of ownership. They will also develop strong relationships with people of all ages, thereby contributing to the physical changes within their community. Through strong relationships with the Cecil B. Moore Service Corporation, Kinship Care at the 11th Street Health Center and the Philadelphia Youth Network, youth participants, adult volunteers and community groups will be able to utilize the gardens as a community asset that will engage residents in creating positive changes within their lives and neighborhoods.
Lightyears Ahead: Science Enrichment Program
Lightyears Ahead is a comprehensive science-enrichment program that uses experiential
learning, art and laboratory exercises to introduce youth to physics, earth
science and life science. The program will also train teachers how to facilitate
Lightyears Ahead lessons in their classrooms so that the program can be duplicated
and sustained. Through hands-on experiments and demonstrations, Lightyears Ahead
participants will explore the biological and chemical links from big (the cosmological
physics of galaxies) to small (the microbiology of plant cells) while using
what they learn to create group art and science projects. By demonstrating the
basic principles of science and using cooperative learning practices, Lightyears
Ahead illustrates and reinforces how every choice a person makes effects the
other people and the world around them.