By Ian Caddick | Grants Coordinator
Global Kids is beyond pleased to report that our GK Leaders this spring are civically engaged and exploring topics like criminal justice reform, environmental sustainability and environmental justice, women’s rights, issues affecting LGBTQ communities, racial identity, and human rights through workshops, field trips, guest speakers, one-on-one mentoring, and hands-on service-learning projects. Through Global Kids, our youth are attaining the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to succeed in school, participate effectively in the democratic process, and achieve leadership in their communities and our world. Below is a selection of our program highlights:
Social Movements to Defend Rights
This winter, GK students enrolled in after-school and in-school programs completed a module focusing on social movements to defend rights, with many of them focusing on issues of racial identity during Black History Month. As part of the module students also explored youth power, systemic oppression, sustainable development goals, and structural oppression.
The Human Rights Activist Project (HRAP)
Using a human rights framework, HRAP gives youth the tools they need to influence public policy. Students identify and research environmental issues and develop campaigns for social change, which includes public outreach, direct action, media strategies, meetings with elected officials, and networking with other organizations.
This year youth have been closely monitoring news on climate change, the Green New Deal, and emissions from large buildings in New York City. Students are exploring the Dirty Buildings Bill and Power Plants Bill and met with city council-member Costa Constantinides on March 28 at City Hall to discuss the bills and their impact on climate change. Students also traveled to Albany on April 9th where they presented their research and lobbied for the Climate and Community Protection Act.
Digital Learning and Leadership (DLL)
Since 2000, Global Kids has been filling a void by bringing STEM curriculum to students in underserved communities. Global Kids’ Digital Learning & Leadership (DLL) program leverages technology and digital media tools to teach leadership skills and to promote local and global community building opportunities for high school, middle school and elementary school students. Global Kids’ digital media programs incorporate makerspace environments that use open source technologies such as Raspberry Pi’s, Scratch Software, and Makey-Makey kits to build students’ digital learning skills and explore careers in STEM.
This year Global Kids once again partnered with LinkNYC to create and display digital murals that highlight African-American accomplishments in STEM.Students utilized tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Fresh Paint to create images of underrepresented African American historical figures that were paired with biographies and displayed on LinkNYC kiosks throughout the city. Through this project, our students played a role in spreading awareness of important female STEM contributors.
Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
Global Kids’ partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations, the world’s leading international affairs think tank, has given our young people unique access to some of the world’s leading foreign policy experts. Participating GK students attend round tables with experts in fields as varied as international relations, cryptocurrencies, and climate change. They are presented with opportunities to engage in discussions on a variety of complex topics including the current relationship between America and members of the international community, and possible solutions to diplomatically end conflicts and de-escalate tension between countries.
Preparation has begun for the 2019 CFR US World Summer Institute program. 20-30 participants will study foreign policy and international affairs issues including climate change, education, women’s rights, and the refugee crisis. After three weeks of workshops, industry meetings and trips, participants will present their projects to CFR members and additional foreign policy experts.
2019 Annual Youth Conference
The Global Kids Annual Youth Conference is scheduled to take place on Thursday, May 23, 2019. Theconference is a youth-organized, youth-led event, which brings together more than 500 teenagers and educators from schools across New York City and beyond, to learn about the issues that are important to our youth. For Global Kids Leaders this day is the culmination of months of research, planning, training and organizing. Global Kids Leaders, along with speakers from around the world, will conduct workshops around the overarching theme of Criminal Justice Reform and cover topics including prisoners’ rights, race, poverty, the war on drugs, gender/LGBTQIA, migration, substance abuse, incarcerated minors, and prisoners of war/political prisoners. Plenary sessions will feature speakers, panels and creative performances designed to engage and familiarize participants with the major themes in the justice movement right now. We are proud of the hard work our students have put into the event and excited to see the event come to fruition.
Thank you for your interest in our Global Kids Leaders. We look forward to continue to share our students successes with you.
By Ian Caddick | Grants Coordinator
By Ian Caddick | Grants Coordinator
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