Invest in the Future of 20 New Youth Leaders!

"Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."  - Aristotle

As 2018 progresses forward, One Common Unity has continued to do the same. After a careful vetting process, The Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington has selected One Common Unity to be part of their Class of 2018-19! Our organization underwent a rigorous review process conducted by a team of 120+ experts in the local philanthropic field, and came away having met the Catalogue's highest standards.

"People want to know where to give and they need trusted information.

Based on our in-depth review, we believe that One Common Unity is one

of the best community-based nonprofits in the region."

-Bob Wittig, Executive Director of the Catalogue for Philanthropy.

As an organization, we are so proud to receive this prestigious honor and are steadfastly committed to continuing working each day to make a positive difference in our community! Our facilitators work tirelessly to lead the youth at our schools sites throughout all eight wards of Washington, D.C. They do so not only in after-school sessions with our youth, but also with in-school programming during the school day at multiple sites and leading activities outside of school as well.

You’ll be amazed to see what our youth have managed to be a part of in the past few months:

March For Our Lives

Fly By Light youth, One Common Unity staff and board members marched together to call for an end to gun violence in the March For Our Lives protest in Washington, D.C. on March 24. Fly By Light youth and facilitators met a couple days prior to the march to discuss the purpose of it, what they hoped it would accomplish, and created unique signage to carry during the massive march.  

Violence Prevention Day

On May 22, we kicked off our first official Violence Prevention Day at Hart Middle School. In a thought-provoking workshop led by our Fly By Light facilitator, Rashid Hughes, students participated in a free write activity, collaborated on poems, and shared in dialogue about how they can make their community safer. Ryane Nickens, President of the TraRon Center, and leaders of the DC Government's Safer, Stronger Violence Prevention program joined us for this workshop.  

Roosevelt Row

One Common Unity and The Future Project came together to support students to create a truly stunning collection of portraits of Roosevelt High School faculty and students who inspire us to be our best! The goal of this project was to build community through creative expression and highlight "what's right" in our respective communities 

Roosevelt Row was a three phase project that focused on peer nominations of students, staff, and administrative members that motivate and inspire students. The nominations went through a selective criteria and only 25 nominees were selected for the unveiling ceremony. Students scheduled photography sessions and interviews with the winners and transformed the photos into hand-painted portraits. The unveiling ceremony welcomed over 100 students and faculty to honor these inspiring individuals and build community through food and musical performances.

These portraits will be on permanent display in Roosevelt Senior High School for others to see and aspire to. Einstein once said “if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will always think it is stupid."   One Common Unity and The Future Project highlight what’s right in our youth and support them in pursuing their goals and dreams.

The Soul Experience

Led by our facilitator Manny Salazar in partnership with the Future Project and a host of talented guest facilitators, The Soul Experience was a chance to support young people in practicing self-care and self love by developing tools to support their holistic health (mental, spiritual, physical, emotional). Roughly 20 students participated in three workshops around self-care and self-love and engaged in art-making, releasing trauma circles, dancing, and drumming workshops and left with a personalized Self-Care Kit. The day was deeply transformational, healing and inspiring for the students involved.

2018 Summer Showcase

On June 11, Fly By Light youth artists from across Washington, D.C. shared their original music, poetry and dance at our annual Summer Arts Showcase to a full house of over 200 people. With the guidance of our after-school facilitators, these tenacious young minds honed their talents for months to create a series of awe-inspiring performances which told their stories and help bring awareness to the problems they've been faced with as young people growing up in the nation's capital.

 Also as part of the event, we premiered a brand new music video for the song “Unity”. The song’s creator, Marcus Morgan (a.k.a. IAmPoppCulture), is an alumnus of One Common Unity’s youth programming, and he dedicated the song to the organization that he adamantly credits as having “saved his life”. The "Unity" music video illustrates and embodies the power of D.C. youth and their resiliency in overcoming the trials and tribulations which affect not only their own communities but the world at-large.

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All of these awesome events and more are made possible thanks to you. Your ongoing support will continue to allow us to build pathways towards a better future with the upcoming generation of leaders.

One Common Unity has been off to a great start in 2018! Thanks to your support, we have been very busy scaling up our programs across D.C., engaging thousands more students in our programming.

After months of preparation, in January 2018 our amazing team of facilitators launched our new Fly By Light in-school programs at eight public middle schools and high schools representing all eight wards of Washington, DC. This new in-school programming comes in addition to the after-school and weekend programs we run at a further three middle schools.

Our programming focuses on non-violence, social emotional literacy, health and wellness, social justice, artistic expression, conflict resolution and mindfulness and vastly expands opportunities for youth to realize their full potential and become socially and emotionally literate leaders and adults. Ultimately, we hope and expect that our expanded engagement as an in-school program will enable school-wide culture shifts away from violence and trauma and towards more peaceful, inspiring learning environments for our youth.

As an example of some of our work in schools, our facilitators work with administrators and teachers to implement mindfulness in-and-out of the classroom. As a mindfulness, restorative justice, and trauma informed alternative to the traditional detention room, at each of our schools we establish an “Intention Room” to offer youth a safe space to process their emotions, expand self-awareness and positively shift behavior. Stepping into the Intention Room students find a far more peaceful environment designed for meditation, restorative justice dialogues, and expressive arts activities.

Simply providing students a few minutes each day for a mindfulness practice often allows students to go on with the rest of their day in a more relaxed and grounded way. As one teacher at Hart Middle School said to our program facilitator, Rashid Hughes: “I really like how the students are able to be with you for the first twenty minutes of class because they transition back to me much calmer and ready to do work.” Fly By Light is shifting the school culture of violence –– one breath at a time!

On Tuesday February 27th, we hosted our “Fly By Light Youth Winter Showcase” at Busboys and Poets’ 5th & K location. Focused on the theme “Breaking Stereotypes and Speaking Truth.”our Fly By Light Performance Troupe, which is comprised of many of the most talented youth artists from across DC, shared powerful, vulnerable, inspiring and moving original pieces to a full house. Their art ranged from rap to interpretative dance, visual art, poetry, acapella, and spoken word. They never cease to amaze us! To check out clips and photos of that night check out our Facebook and Instagram. We send a big thank you to Andy Shallal and the Busboys and Poets team for having us!  

In the wake of the recent school shooting in Florida, youth across the country have come together to mobilize a movement to change gun policy. At each of our schools, Fly By Light youth have engaged in profound conversations to imagine peaceful schools and address safety in their lives and are working in their communities to bring people together to attend the March For Our Lives March taking place on March 24th.  

We want to thank you for your support as we continue to shift the culture of silence and violence to positive praxis, language and action!