The Next Few Months at Egleston YMCA

Leena Silverman — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:51:03 +0000

I feel a little better about Egleston Y right now because I am just getting used to how things are run here, inefficiently. So, i am going to try my best not to accept it and to get things done; this is what i am doing:

Ordering the stolen equipment for the computer lab hopefully the YMCA insurance will help us. We are going to change the lock to the door of the lab and buy locks for the computer screens. I am working on securing the place as best as possible, since nobody bothered to do that before.

I am starting up my creative writing program and math program for the school year.

Planning a family science and technology event for next year. Timothy Smith is trying to find funding to plan events for all the Timothy Smith computer labs.

For building capacity:

I am trying to network with the 826 Boston non-profit. They're basically a writing center for young kids in the Egleston community. I want to build a connection with them and hopefully when I leave the Y they will be involved with them long term.

I am starting to record everything down that i do from passwords to curriculum in a binder for the next person to use.

I am trying to figure out how to train at least one employee from the afterschool program on how I run the computer lab and what i think works best, ect. Also, to get them familiar with the programs i am running, so when i am gone they will continue. I need to find someone to continue going to the timothy smith meetings and to file the annual reports.

Open access for the lab needs to get started, the only problem is there are not enough people to monitor the lab, it's just me.

Recruiting volunteers and work-study people from North Eastern University. I have an assistant now, that's handy. The volunteer comes in to help kids with one-on-one tutoring/homework.

What are other people doing for capacity building at their sites?

The Realities of Egleston YMCA

Leena Silverman — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:14:56 +0000

It has been pretty busy at the Y this summer; camp for the child care program, the teen center slowly disintegrating, and the computer lab with all its wonderful programing happening.

This summer I facilitated two programs that were pretty successful. We had a math club and a creative writing club and the kids seemed to love it! This is one positive thing that came out of the summer. Also, for the teen center, I hired a nice man to facilitate a media literacy workshop called Media Minds. Non of the teens from the teen center became involved, which was very disappointing. But, this sort of thing is very new to Egleston, so it might take a couple of years to get people used to workshops like Media Minds. What ended up happening was that we used teens that were working for the Y during the Summer to participate in the media literacy workshop and a few enjoyed it a lot.

Your probably wondering what I meant by the Realities of Egleston YMCA, well we got broken into and a lot of nice things got stolen from the computer lab! ) ; One monitor, all the speakers, and a digital camera, among others things in the building were stolen! My supervisor Matt Crichton says that these are the realities of this place and you work with what you got. What do you think? Do you just work with what you have or do you fight and complain until things get right and you get what you want and in most cases what you need?

Digital Arts Service Corps - Egleston YMCA

The Next Few Months at Egleston YMCA

The Realities of Egleston YMCA