Groups

Information from Natasia Siberda at Gowanus Canal

On Saturday, November 16th, we went to the Gowanus Canal and had a meeting with Natasia Siberda. She is one of the organizers of the Gowanus Canal Organization. We came to a clean-up. Unfortunately we were not able to volunteer so we just observed and asked question. She explained that the 2 main sources for…

Interview with Alice Stiegerwald at the Covenant House

In late October, my group went to Covenant House. During this visit, we got to interview Alice Steigerwald. She told us about what the students do on a daily basis. The Covenant House provides 108 beds for the children to sleep in and what to wear during interviews. The students learn how to do daily…

Between the Door and the Stoop

On Saturday October 19, I attended a event called “Between the Door and the Street” in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. There were hundreds of women (and a couple of men) of all different ages, sitting on stoops of town houses wearing yellow scarves, discussing some of the largest issues women today face, unscripted. The event worked…

Interview with Donna Dees, Creator of Million Moms’ March

LREI Gun violence group meeting activist Donna Dees Our social justice group got the chance to meet with creator of The Million Moms March Donna Dees. We learned so much and got many contacts from this interview. Our question was: “How did you start it (Million Moms’ March) and When did you start it?” To…

The Covenant House

In late October, our poverty group went to the Covenant House. While we were there, we had an interview with Alice Steigerwald, the Deputy Director. She talked to us about what happens on a daily basis at the Covenant House. We are too young to see the kids there, so Alice informed us about everything…

Interview with Amanda Setiawan, 11/6/13

About a week ago we went on a trip to visit and interview Amanda Setiawan, President of the NYU Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. Engineers Without Borders (EWB) is a nonprofit organization whose main goal is to help supply other less established towns outside the U.S. with the technology they need. Rather than just gifting…

Interview with Yang Jiang on 11/14/13

Before our interview with Columbia graduate and data analyst Yang Jiang, we believed that the organization she works with, NCCP (national center for child poverty) was a place children living in poverty could go to. After basing a lot of our questions for Dr. Jiang about what NCCP aims to achieving, we were very surprised…

Volunteer Work At Homes for The Homeless – 11/22/13

On November 11th, 2013, Chiara, Rachel, Julia, Carla and I went to Homes for The Homeless to do volunteer work, and help the children at the shelter do a arts and crafts thanksgiving activity. Homes for the Homeless is a shelter that providesfamily-based, child-centered, and education-focused oppurtunity. They provide the necessary support for families and…

Amanda Setiawan/ Engineers Without Borders NYU Chapter 11/6/13

Recently we had an interesting meeting with on the the leaders of the Engineers Without Borders NYU Chapter.It was a educational experience in which we learned about ways we could help, and about ways the they are already helping. Amanda’s NYU chapter is currently working on a multitude of things. As work often in third world…

St. John’s Food Pantry 11/12/2013:

  For our second field work we went to St. John’s Food Pantry. We got their as a group and met up with the leader of the program Joe Spicket. Joe Spicket is a man who has been running this food pantry for a long time and is someone who buys all the food for…

Interview with Donna Dees, 11/7/13

Donna Dees is an activist for gun violence prevention and gun violence laws in the United States. She is the founder of Million Moms March, a group of almost a million moms who marched in Washington for stricter gun laws throughout the United States. On November 7th we met with Donna in our school for…

10/17/13 – UN Eradication of Poverty Day Conference

On October 17 2013, the Split B Poverty Group went to the UN for a meeting on the eradication of poverty for the Eradication Of Poverty which is an international day where people come together to discuss possible solutions to resolving poverty, share stories about their encounters with poverty, and hold performances for people who…

Interview with Mr. Bill Torres from the Ali Forney Center

On November 14, 2013 Liv Reis, Lulu Grant, Zoe Carter and Sam Kielian interviewed Bill Torres of the Ali Forney Center, working to help members of the LGBTQ community. How do you create a safe environment for LGBTQ? “We have ground rules, anyone who comes in have to go through an interview. We have them…

Interview with Bill Torres of the Ali Forney Center

Today we spoke to Mr.Torres who works for the Ali Forney Center. The Ali Forney Center helps LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning/Queer) Youth from 16-25. They provide housing, medical care, food, and clothing. They have many different courses on different topics and hobbies. They have 89 beds, every night each bed is being used.…

Interview with Dennis Ahlgrim, I’m a Girl Campaign,11/12/13

Interview with Dennis Ahlgrim, I’m a Girl Campaign,11/12/13 On Tuesday November 12, my group and I met with Dennis Ahlgrim, the person who designed the I’m a Girl Campaign. The goal of our interview was to find out more about how the campaign was designed, and how some important decisions were made. I thought our…

Interview with Dennis Ahlgrim

For our second fieldwork, our group met with Dennis Ahlgrim. Dennis was the designer for NYC’s “I’m A Girl” campaign. The “I’m A Girl” add campaign is an add targeted at girls from ages seven through 12 to help with self-esteem issues. The add can easily be seen on the subway or on the side…

Elizabeth Irwin High School Day of the Girl Assembly

In September, 2013, we did our first fieldwork. Both women’s groups went to the high school for the Day of the Girl assembly. We had only gotten our social justice groups the day before and our group hadn’t even decided on the topic we were doing. Confused, I was told to go the the lobby.…

Visit to the United Nations Conference On 10/17/13

My Social Justice Group visited the UN and attended a conference about Poverty, and what can we do to help. I learned at the conference that children struggle with the topic of poverty at schools in fear that they might be judged or criticized for being in a shelter. I think this impacted my group…

UN Conference, October 17

On October 17th, my group attended the International Day of the Eradication of Poverty at the U.N.. We heard many messages from people who are trying to stop poverty. We also heard many speakers talk about their struggles and challenges with poverty. We heard from a 14-year-old girl living in a homeless shelter; her speech…

UN Conference, October 17

Last month, October 17, my Social Justice Group went to visit the United Nations. It was the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Many people talked about their experiences and struggles with poverty. One 14 year-old teenager talked about her life living in shelters and her experience being constantly teased and discriminated against. They…

UN Conference, October 17

Both poverty groups went to a Poverty Eradication Conference at the United Nations. We heard from many speakers from all over the world. The goal of the visit was simply to gain statistical information to head off our project. Getting to and from the UN was simple, and our group coped well with the high…

Interview with Alice Steigerwald, 11/6/13

The poverty group went on a fieldwork yesterday. We visited the Covenant House which is a transitional housing unit for youth in NYC. We met with Alice Steigerwald and discussed the work of Covenant House and general poverty in New York. We also learned about how Covenant House and others similar organizations work including what…

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Our group is looking at Wrongful Incarceration, Stop and Frisk, and the Justice System as a whole. The Justice System is flawed, people are sent to jail for crimes they did not commit, Stop and Frisk targets mainly African American men, and the entire trial system tries to force the accused to plead guilty. We…

Poverty Has No Face

Our social justice group took interest in poverty because of the sympathy we feel for the homeless men and women we see every day on the streets. We want to make a visible difference and broadcast the message that there are many types of homeless people, and they are not to be generalized into the…

Corporate Earth

We are five passionate 8th graders who are excited to make a change in the world. We are working to stop corporate pollution and irresponsibility locally and globally. We want to raise awareness about the climate changes have the potential to wipe us out. We are fighting against environmental racism corporate exploitation, working with community grassroots non-profits and…

Power Of Women Ending Rape

We are a group of five 8th Grade girls, focusing on sex trafficking and all acts of sexual violence for our Social Justice Project. From going on various field works and interviews we have gained an abundance of knowledge on this topic. As a group we want to bring to light the epidemic that has…

Young Guns

We are a social justice group that is focused on helping rid the United States of gun violence. We are doing this by raising awareness and educating people about this important issue. We are also doing anything we can to help pass bills and laws that prevent gun violence. We are reaching out to senators…

LGBTQ: All About Pride

The LGBTQ community has suffered throughout many years so we are trying to raise awareness and learn as much about the struggles and progress of this society as we can. We have been interviewing numerous organization founders, directors and staff about how they keep a safe environment for LGBT youth and what they provide for…

Sock Out Homelessness

We are a group of four eighth graders who attend LREI: Little Red School House and Elizabeth Irwin High School. Our social justice group is interested in issues involving homelessness, one of the biggest problems that people in cities throughout the the United States faces. In New York City alone, for example, more than 60,000…

Girls Just Like Us

Hi, we’re Girls Just LIke Us,  an eighth grade group from LREI fighting to get respect for women in the media. Women and girls are misrepresented in advertisements, commercials, movies, and more. The media sets unrealistic and unfair standards for girls of our generation. These standards can make girls feel uncomfortable with their bodies, and make their self esteem drop drastically. Not…

Unthanked Heroes

Our justice group took interest in veterans affairs when it became clear to us that veterans come home completely alienated and conflicted by war, and aren’t then given adequate health care. This information came to us through news paper articles and close friends and family who have served in wars. Our group goal is to…

An Interview with Jessica Wolff

On March 8th, our group spoke to one of the members at Campaign for Educational Equity named Jessica Wolff. The Campaign for Educational Equity is an organization that helps impoverished children to get the same/equal services as more privileged children. Jessica says that “this country does public education pretty well, but where our country serves…

Volunteering at Coalition for the Homeless Food Van

On March 7th, the Child Poverty had the amazing opportunity to go volunteer with the Coalition for the Homeless van program. Coalition for the Homeless sends multiple vans to all five boroughs to give out food to people living in poverty who can’t afford to buy meals. These trucks are full of soups, oranges, milk,…

An Interview with Bonnie Greaves

On March 6th, my group and I talked to a woman named Bonnie Greaves who is a volunteer at the Citizens’ Committee for Children. This organization’s goal is to “educate and mobilize New Yorkers to make the city a better place for children”. This organization doesn’t help children directly, but they promote solutions to make…

Volunteer Work at Room To Grow

On February 23, the Child Poverty Group had the opportunity to volunteer at an amazing organization called Room to Grow. Room to Grow is an organization that provides clothing (from sizes 0 months to 5 years) and toys to families who can’t afford to buy them. Multiple families depend on Room to Grow to help…

Playing Squash At Street Squash!

On February 22nd, my group and I went to Street Squash an organization that tutors and teaches squash to children from 6th to 12th grade. My group sat in on a sixth grade class to see how it worked. They were reading a popular book, City of Embers. It is about a slightly corrupt society…

Producer Lauren Mucciolo Came to Speak With Us About Her Movie!

On February 11th, the Child Poverty group had guest speaker Lauren Mucciolo come speak with our grade. Lauren Mucciolo is the producer of an amazing documentary called “Poor Kids”. This documentary aired on PBS Frontline about a month ago that takes place in the eyes of three kids who have lived in poverty almost all…

Women Moving Millions Communtity Update Call Sit-In

At 2:45 February 5th, we arrived at the main headquarters of Women Moving Millions. Women Moving Millions is a worldwide organization that works to reach out to women in order to help them succeed in business and to help found companies with women CEO’s. WMM is also world wide organization supporting women in business in the…

Youth Demand: Not Sometime

Youth Demand End Gun Violence. We are four eighth graders from New York who are trying to end gun violence in America. We need to speak up because this is our future and we do not want to grow up in a place of death and chaos. End gun violence now!! Sign our petition: http://signon.org/sign/youth-demand-e… Follow…

Youth Demand: Now

Youth Demand End Gun Violence. We are four eighth graders from New York who are trying to end gun violence in America. We need to speak up because this is our future and we do not want to grow up in a place of death and chaos. End gun violence now!! Sign our petition: http://signon.org/sign/youth-demand-e… Follow…

Youth Demand: Youth Is

Youth Demand End Gun Violence. We are four eighth graders from New York who are trying to end gun violence in America. We need to speak up because this is our future and we do not want to grow up in a place of death and chaos. End gun violence now. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemandVoice and…

Youth Demand: End

Youth Demand End Gun Violence. We are four eighth graders from New York who are trying to end gun violence in America. We need to speak up because this is our future and we do not want to grow up in a place of death and chaos. End gun violence now. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemandVoice and…

Interview at District Attorney’s Office

By Julia N. Last Wednesday at 11AM we visited the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office for an interview with three employees in the Crime Prevention Division. Sadie’s contact, Frank Laghezza, let us speak with him along with his colleagues, Mary Hughes and Teri Fabi, about their work. Mary Hughes is the Confidential Assistant District Attorney. She…

Housing Plus Solutions-The Drew House

By Sadie On January 24th, my social justice group visited an ATI which stands for Alternative to Incarceration. This ATI was a place where mothers can serve jail/prison time but they don’t have to be separated from their children. It is part of Housing Plus Solutions and is the only program in the country of…

Sign our petition

Click here. PETITION STATEMENT: We, today’s youth, demand a ban on assault weapons, an increase in microstamping, an end to the loopholes in existing gun laws, and tighter gun registration requirements. By doing so we will be saving lives like yours and mine.

Juvenile In Justice Art Exhibit

By Julia N. Today we went to the a gallery with Richard Ross’ exhibit called “Juvenile In Justice.” We say many graphic pictures of the conditions that these youths have to live in. It was disgusting and moving to see the cells and read the quotes from the people who were photographed. All of the…

New Projects!

Yesterday, January 15th, my Social Justice Group (No Sugar Added) went to visit Wat-aah! again about upcoming projects. Right now we are going to start researching on energy and sports drinks. Each one of us are going to research an energy/sports drink. I am going to research RedBull, Isiah Monster, Bella Gatorade, Sofia Mellow and…

FLOW: For Love Of Water

On, Thursday, January 10, and Friday January 11, my social Justice Group and I watched FLOW, For Love Of Water. To start, it is an amazing movie and I recommend you to watch it, you will learn a lot. Next, the movie is about water, and how we should be using it for a resource…

Emotional Creatures Play

For our fourth fieldwork, we saw one of the last showings of the play Emotional Creature, which focuses on the issues of young women, both here and around the world. We saw it on January 10th, 2013 at the Signature Theater. The play showed snippets from the lives of various young women, from America to…

Emotional Creature Performance

On January 10th, my group and the other Women’s Rights group went to a broadway performance called “Emotional Creature”. Emotional Creature was about the broad topic of a teenage girls life, and showing the audience many different scenarios of what girls go through. We saw scenarios of rape, physical abuse, body image/eating disorders, boys, hormones…

New York City-The Safest City in America

Our teacher, Sarah sent us this article about how more police on the streets reduces crime. Read the article to find out more! http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/nyregion/police-have-done-more-than-prisons-to-cut-crime-in-new-york.html?emc=eta1&_r=0

Steve Liss Interview

On Tuesday December 4 , my social justice group and I had a video conference with the chairman of American Poverty, Steve Liss. We discussed what American Poverty does to help impoverished families and people by protests and rallies along with artwork andphotographs of first hand poverty that they put on exhibit. We discussed when…

Interview with Judge Clark Richardson and Lawyers for Children

People Met: Judge Clark Richardson and Three social workers from Lawyers For Children Date: December 19, 2012 Author: Jessica Our second fieldwork was a very interesting and intriguing experience for myself and my group. We sat down at Manhattan family court to view various different child abuse/neglect cases. The goal of this fieldwork was to…

Fieldwork #3: Interview w/ Juan De La Cruz (12/5/12)

On December 5, 2012, my group and I went to an interview with Juan Dei La Cruz. Mr. Cruz is the director of the food branch of Coalition for the Homeless. My group and I took the subway to 129 Fulton St. to meet with the director. We asked him questions we had prepared before, and recorded…

Interview with Amber Hollibaugh, CEO of Queers for Economic Justice, Fieldwork 5

This is the recording of the interview our group conducted with Amber Hollibaugh, CEO of Queers for Economic Justice: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8vK2I3Y7cbjWTI2MV95N08tbk0/edit?usp=sharing On Thursday, December 13, my group, the LGBTQ Group, interviewed Amber Hollibaugh, the executive director of Queers for Economic Justice (QEJ). QEJ formed during the Clinton administration to stand up for poor LGBTQ people. QEJ…

Interview with Patricia McCormick

On December 13th, my group and I had a 30 minute interview with the author of Sold, Cut and Never Fall Down, Patricia McCormick. Sold is book about a poor girl who is stuck struggling from Sexual Abuse in India. Our main focus was on the novel Sold and how sexual trafficking connects to Domestic…

Clifton Budd and DeMaria Law Firm Interview

On Wednesday, December 12, we went to visit the Clifton Budd and DeMaria, LLP Law Firm at 420 Lexington Ave, Suite 420. We left Little Red at 9:30 and my mom drove us there by car. Our interview starts at 10:00. We get there five minutes early and go up. We wait for him and…

Viewing of Ken Burns’ “Central Park Five”

By Julia N. On December 12, at around 5 o’clock in the evening, we went to Lauren’s house to watch Ken Burns’ documentary on the Central Park Five. The Central Park Five were a group of boys (four black, one Latino) who were arrested for the rape and severe attack of a white female jogger…

Interview with Carol Granum from STEPS

On December 12th my group and I had an Interview with Carol Granum. Carol, leads the program STEPS. STEPS is a program for teen domestic violence offenders. STEPS is an alternative rather than going to jail. The program has existed for 25 years. The students are STEPS are expected to come to class once a…

St. John’s Bread and Life 12/11/12

Last week, we went to St. John’s Bread and Life. On the way there, we got a little bit lost because we did not have clear directions telling us how to get there. When we finally got off the train, a man and a woman who seemed to be married were asking people for directions.…

Interview With Colin Goddard, Virgin Tech Shooting Survivor

On December 10th 2012 my gun violence group and I Skyped a survivor of the Virginia Tech Shooting, who is working with the Brady Campaign, Colin Goddard. The ultimate goal of this fieldwork was to hear his story if possible, as well as learning from someone from the Brady Campaign and getting as much information…

Field Work #3 Blog Post-Court Case

On December 6, my group and I went to the Criminal Court in Brooklyn, to view domestic violence court dates. We sat in the jury box and observed the cases at hand. I learned that if a defender in a domestic violence case does not plead guilty to a domestic violence action they have to…

Interview with Elizabeth Webster from The Innocence Project

On Wednesday December 5th my group conducted an interview with Elizabeth Webster. Liz works in the communications department at The Innocence Project. The Innocence Project was the organization that I had decided to take charge of for our projects. Towards the beginning of the year I started doing research on the Innocence Project. My first…

Housing Works – Charles King, December 5, 2012

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8vK2I3Y7cbjUkFielRBd1l4M0E/edit?usp=sharing This is a recording of Charles King’s talk-in with the grade on December 5, 2012. On December 5th, 2012, Charles King the CEO and cofounder of Housing Works came to the eighth grade. He had talked about his experiences growing up, how HIV/AIDS has an effect on his life, about Housing Works, and how…

Interview with Jordyn Lexton on Drive Change

By Julia N. On Monday, December 3 we (the youth incarceration group) interviewed Jordyn Lexton on her new organization called Drive Change. Ms. Lexton is a former English teacher at Rikers Island. She became interested in the topic of youth incarceration while taking a theater class during her senior year at Wesleyan. The class was…

Interview with the Third Wave Foundation’s Andrea Flynn

On Thursday november 29th we interviewed Andrea Flynn, a chair member of the Third Wave foundation. The Third Wave Foundation was founded by Dawn Martin, Rebecca Walker, Amy Richards and Katharine Gun. The Third Wave Foundation earned its name form the three waves of feminism. The first wave was in the early 1900’s when women…

Interview with Michelle Kaminsky and Farah Rodriguez

On Thursday, November 29 my group and I went to the DA’s office in Brooklyn. We interviewed multiple people and what their job is at the office. First we met with Michelle Kaminsky who is a domestic violence attorney. We had worked with Michelle before and had another discussion with her. One person we interviewed…

Go Project Tour!

On Saturday my Poverty Social Justice Group and I embarked on a field work to LREI where we would work with the Go Project. We mainly went there for a orientation to the organization so we can learn more about what they do. We listened in on some classes and i particularly listened to a…

The start of our concert project

On Monday, November 19th our SJ group went to WAT-AAH again. Our goal while we were there was to When we were there Christine Widga (Director of marketing) wanted us to start our project for the concert coming up the next week. At the event our group will have a booth and have posters. All…

Long Island Wins

http://www.longislandwins.com This is an organization headquartered in Long Island, who is fighting for the rights of undocumented youth immigrants in the U.S.

Child Abuse Field Work with CAPP

On November 14, I had a social justice interview with three women who work at an organization called Prevent Child Abuse. My group asked them questions about child abuse and the organization they work for, then they put on a puppet show that they show to third graders, mostly in public schools. The goal of…

Child Poverty Group goes to the ITLP Fundraiser

On Monday, November 12th my group went to a fundraiser for ITLP, the International Theatre and Literacy Project. This organization works with students in incredibly poor communities in Tanzania and South Africa. They do workshops with them to teach them playwriting. This year, the students wrote and performed a play about being heard. They had…

First Fieldwork with Wat-aah: Introduction Visit

Hi, this is Sarah. On Monday, November 12th, my social justice group and I were given the opportunity to visit the Wat-aah offices. Wat-aah is a company that we have been communicating with. It was beyond exciting to visit. They focus on health and they want to prevent childhood obesity by stopping all the kids…

Cradle to Prison Pipeline-Phone Interview with Ilana Brunner

By Sadie On Sunday November 11th, we had an interview scheduled to talk to Ilana Brunner who works in the Washington D.C. office of Congressman Robert “Bobby” Scott. Mr. Scott is working on a legislative called the PROMISE Act. PROMISE stands for Prison Reduction through Opportunities, Mentoring, Intervention, Support and Education. Pennsylvania invested 60 million…

The Gender Gap Film Screening

For our first fieldwork, we went to a movie screening called Women’s Voices: The Gender Gap, which was about women’s rights. It took place on October 25, 2012. It showed a movie made during the Reagan era about women’s opinions on politics and related topics, and was followed by a panel presentation that talked about…