Sewing circle at the Fenton Street Market!

For the second time in a month, the sewing circle, known amongst the members as “Rosal” or rose bush, had its own booth at the bustling Fenton Street Market. They allowed passersby to try their hand at stitching along basic patterns on pre-cut pieces of fabric. A couple folks dropped off fabric donations and more than  a dozen expressed interest in paying for a course on learning the basics to using the machine. One lady who runs her own clothing design business in Silver Spring even approached the group about hiring them to be her primary sewers! It was a wonderful time making connections with a variety of Silver Springers and amongst ourselves. Big shout out to Hannah McCann who runs the market and has really been the driving force behind Rosal getting this opportunity to promote the amazing work their doing. Thanks Hannah!!!

Nathalie practices as Victoria talks with first potential male member of the sewing circle!

Our very own chalkboard sign!

Owner of local self-run clothing business talks possibilities with Victoris

Ladies with Franca Brilliant, head of the Takoma Foundation which gave group $2000 grant

Victoria helps a passerby with her sewing skills!

Building community one pass at a time

 

After finishing out the Spring Season in the Takoma Soccer league, the 3rd and 4th grade boys teams have continued practicing Tuesdays and Thursdays into the summer. With the facilitaitional help of Coach Armando, who lives in the Nob Hill apartments, the 3rd grade team’s parents met a few weeks ago to organize a rotating drink and snack schedule. On average 15 parents show up to Armando’s practices eager to help run drills, cheer the kids on, provide refreshments and even, as was the case this past Thursday, deliver practice jerseys, or pennies, one parent was compelled to buy for the team.

Thanks to Coach Armando’s intentional relationship building via weekly check-in phone calls and impropmptu pre-practice sideline meetings, the parents feel deep commitment to and ownership over their children’s soccer team. They have already selected a team secreatary and assistant coach and next Friday, at an LBAA-wide summer soccer program registration party, will formalize additional parent roles looking forward to the Fall season. Armando is eager to create a structure for parent involvement in the teams that can ultimately act as a space for mutual support and civic engagement in the larger Long Branch community.

 

Below are several pictures from Coach Chris’ 4th grade boys practice:

5th grade soccer guys and team managers

 

Coach Chris teaching "goalie 101" to David and crew

 

Wilinson practicing goalie basics

 

Below are pictures from Coach Armando’s 3rd grade boys practice:

Parents and uncle watch on as their star player does best job to stay inside the lines Soccer dad David explains importance of parents being actively involved in kid's soccer program

Women’s Circle Meet and Greet a success!

On May 10 the Long Branch Women’s Sewing circle held a meet and greet with associated partner organizations to formally kick off their three month program of sewing and entrepreneurial training. In attendance were staff and board members from Empowered Women International,–a local non-proft that concentrates on assisting female immigrant artisans with starting their own business–IMPACT staff, Bruce Baker–representing the Takoma Foundation– and the women themselves. In addition to celebrating  the women’s accomplishments thus far and cheering them on as they begin this next step, we had a lively conversation around how the partners can collaborate in efforts to  support these women as they move toward full economic empowerment.

 

 

Alicia welcoming the group

Crazy shot!

 

 

Sewing circle offers first paid course to public!

This happened all the way back on May 11 but still deserves to be mentioned. Edelsa, Nathalie and Alicia hosted 9 women from throughout Silver Spring and Takoma Park for a night of sewing and hanging out. Each participant brought an old shirt to transform into their very own memorable pillow!

Edelsa showing the participants where to cut the t-shirts

Edelsa giving Jayne a little extra attention

After individually assisting the participants in getting the machines ready and then practicing basic stitches, Edelsa walked the whole group through the basic steps for making a shirt. Amidst the sewing, Spanish and English was being practiced, stories were being shared and trust across lines of economic and ethnic differences being built…and money being made! It was the group’s first experimenting with their newly tapped entrepreneurial spirits.

They are looking forward to offering a follow up course for the same group sometime in July. Once they have a little more practice under their belts they’ll be looking for the next group of participants…maybe you!?

Alicia and Nathalie lending a helping hand to four participants

The Sewing Circle make their debut at the Fenton Street Market

This past Saturday four women from Rosal, formerly known as the Long Branch Sewing Circle had their own booth at the Fenton Street Market. Without enough products to sell already, they were largely there to gain visibility and have community members join their contact list so that they can be in touch around donatinos, upcoming paid classes and alteration requests. Sitting behind their machines and working on their individual projects, more than a dozen folks stopped by interested to learn more about the group. Several offered fabric and one retired lady asked if she could help teach English in return for learning the basics. It was a wonderful opportunity to make some connections and practice talking about the amazing work that they’ve embarked upon.

 

 

Wheaton's own, Ana Giron, split the table with Rosal to sell her hand made jewelry

Meet…Rosal!

The women enjoying themselves while hard at work on their latest assignment: skirts!

I know it’s been a while since the last update on the sewing circle. Fortunately, it’s partially because there’s been so much going  on in the last few weeks. In less than a month, the circle has formally kicked off its 3 month program for 8 women, offered its first paid course (which earned them $450!), had their own table at the Fenton Street Market and…created a new name for the goup: Rosal! Meaning a rose bush, the name, according to Edelsa, represents the group itself as it has begun to blossom and realize its full, beautiful potential. As opposed to just one rose, the bush represents a subtle but vital diversity of shades that give it its full vibrancy. In the same way, the group has begun to understand the many skills and talents of its members and knows that it can thrive only if each member is able to fully contribute these gifts.

The group is making steady progress meeting twice a week for a total of 6 hours. As apprentices of Edelsa, they are following a curriculum that right now has them practicing make their very own skirts. In the most recent meeting they also agreed that they should have a single focus for production–potentially laying the groundwork for a future business–in the next few months. They chose the Christmas Holiday season as their target date for having enough products ready for network members to purchase at some sort of big kick-off celebration event.

Board member Myriam Torrico also joined us in yesterday’s session to facilitate a conversation around group goals and strategies. While not yet ready to have their own bank account, the group decided to safe guard a certain amount of cash withdrawn from their total funds–currently being managed by IMPACT–in a secure cash box. Alicia was chosen as treasurer with her main task being overseeing all transactions involving the $500 under their control.

The group plans to be at the Fenton Street Market offering short demonstrations on sewing June 25! Hope to see you there!

Also, please contact us if you’re interested in donating any fabric, thread, old machines…etc. Thanks.

“Outreach Will Be a Part of Everything We Do.”

A lot has happened since the last time that Piney Branch’s four Leadership teams (PBAT, PLCI, PTA, SIT) met on April 11th:

1. School staff and leadership team members came together on May 2nd to look at PBES’ current mission statement for alignment with the school’s values and goals. Ideas for a new mission statement were proposed.

2. Parents and students attending the May 5th PTA meeting went through their own mission statement examination and brainstorming process.

3. Feedback on the current and proposed PBES mission statements was gathered from parents attending the Authors Tea event on May 13th. This event was chosen for the solicitation because a large and diverse parent population usually attends.

4. Members of the PLCI met to sort through all of the feedback and organize the ideas into coherent draft mission and vision statements.

The purpose of the May 23rd follow-up meeting of the Leadership teams was to share the draft mission and vision statements for feedback; to provide clarity around the way forward for the School Improvement Team (SIT); and to begin thinking about implementation of the expanded focus and more inclusive practices of the SIT.

Feedback on Mission/Vision

The six draft mission statements and four draft vision statements crafted by PLCI members were posted around the Media Center for viewing. Meeting participants (parents, staff and administrators) were given time to read and ponder each statement and “vote” for the one that resonated. Voting was done by placing a sticky dot on the mission and vision statements of choice. The students at the school will be given an opportunity to voice their opinions about the statements in a similar way. The “winning” mission and vision statements will be announced prior to the end of the school year.

Changes to the School Improvement Team

In determining how to combine the best practices of the PTA, PBAT, PLCI and SIT into one new and improved SIT, it was decided that not only will the School Improvement Team continue to focus on academic achievement, but it will also take on the work of community outreach. As principal Generlette said, “Outreach will now be a part of everything that we do.”

Implementing the New Way

Expanding the focus of the School Improvement Team to include outreach, means that the the SIT will take a more active role in connecting the school and community on a relational level.  One way that will happen is that SIT members will participate in the planning of school/community events. Although many of these events have an academic focus, they typically also have an outreach purpose. The SIT will organize into committees to help plan and carryout events like Back to School Night, International Night, and Parent-Teacher Conferences. Each of the committees will have a parent and staff liaison to make sure that the events are truly community focused. The SIT will work in much closer partnership with the PTA. Assistant principal Kara Tymon said that this new way of doing things on the SIT will help to, “ensure that participation on the Team is a valuable part of everyone’s time.”

What’s Next for the Action Team?

They Piney Branch Action Team has one final project for this school year:   “Welcome New Families.”   The goal of the project is to create a welcoming and inclusive environment for incoming third graders and their families. The Action Team is partnering with the PTA to carry out this project which will include a door-knocking event, a school tour/scavenger hunt, family pizza dinner, and a community-building PTA meeting. Check back in with this blog to find out how this project goes and to learn which were the  ”winning” mission and vision statements!

English class!!!

During this week we learned about ailments, symptoms and injuries, such as expressing a specific pain or injury, also learned about the hospital, medical treatment  for esample: stitches, diet, rest!!

 We learned how important it is to know what kind of doctor we need, for example, if I need to take my baby to the doctor,  I need a pediatrician,

If  I need to check my teeth, I need a dentist!! simple but very important things to know especialy in english!!

Learning about the house!

Everyone learning about the house!!

This week’s lesson the kitchen!

“Hello class this day we will learn the kitchen,” during this week we learned all parts of the kitchen, cooking utensils, on day two of the lessons learned about the home services and repairs, the parts of the house such as saying in English: the plumber, pest control.

Everyone was very happy because now we know how to say in English when we need a service or repair at home.

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Last Thursday’s Neighbor Corps session was split between reflecting on the past and planning for the future.  As was written about in an earlier post, many NC members participated in a Saturday leadership development session on personal power.  They wanted to share some of that energy with those unable to attend.  That sharing happened in the form of a “fish bowl” activity.  As with an actual fish bowl, those inside are insulated from those outside and thus the “insiders” have the freedom to pour out their thoughts and feelings without interruption.   And boy did they let it flow!  For Genet, Saturday’s session helped her to understand why people choose to, “nibble instead of grow.”  Victoria took away from the session that, “we can share our power without diminishing it.”  Andre noted that the session reminded him of how often he’s seen people,  “diminish others to make themselves feel better.”

In addition to sharing about the The Kernel of Power and Nibble Theory, “insiders” revealed some of the honest feelings that came up during the workshop about the PhotoVoice project.  Victoria mentioned that some NC members wanted to feel more ownership of the project.  Given the real feelings that came up about  the direction of the project and group autonomy, Thursday’s session provided an ideal moment to take a step back and examine the original framework of the Long Branch Neighbor Corps for continued resonance.

In a nutshell, the framework is:
1. Identifying times when we’ve each experienced effective community,
2. Practicing the identified “ways of being” within our group, and
3. Taking leadership to spread the practices to the larger Long Branch community.

Emiye said that the framework still worked for her and shared a story about employees at her sister’s job.  Those employees created their own edir which is an Ethiopian practice of communally pooling money to be used by community members in need.  Here was an example of an Ethiopian practice successfully transported to an American setting.  This model is at the heart of the Neighbor Corps project.

However, even with continued shared resonance around the Neighbor Corps framework, more discussion revealed other issues that Neighbor Corps members wanted to address.  Victoria and Emiye both felt like the team would greatly benefit from stronger relationships among team members.  As an example, Victoria mentioned that there were absent team members who were perhaps in need of support, but who had had no one reach out to them.  Even though Sebastian (IMPACT staffer) shared that he had been in touch with the absent members, her point wasn’t lost.

After polling the Neighbor Corps members present, it was decided that the immediate next step for the team should be to focus on relationship-building.  A small group of Corps members will meet before next session to discuss ways to strengthen relationships within the team.  Stay tuned to find out what this dedicated, innovative and powerful group comes up with!