Logistics for South West Youth Collaborative (SWYC) Visit:

Contact Details:

Harish Patel
312.823.0090
harishibrahim@gmail.com

Make sure you contact me at least one day before making your trip out to the SWYC. I would like to plan ahead so that I can be available to help you when you arrive.


Location:

6400 S. Kedzie
Chicago, IL 60629
Map

Getting to SWYC by Public Transportation:

1. Take the Pink or Orange Line CTA to the Kedzie stop.
2. Take the Kedzie Bus #52 south and get off on 63rd and Kedzie.
3. Walk one block south to the corner of 64th and Kedzie.
   

http://tripsweb.rtachicago.com/ - use this link to get precise instructions to the center from wherever you’re coming from.

Once you arrive at the center, ask for (me) Harishi.

I also remember that some of you wanted to meet up and come as a group. Remember, we can’t accommodate groups of more than 3 people. If you’re interested in coming as a small group or in a pair, email the class and arrange things for yourself. You can find everyone else’s email address from the mass emails that we have sent to you.

When:

You can visit anytime during regular hours: Monday - Friday, 10 AM – 4 PM

If you’re unable to visit SWYC within this schedule, please contact me and we can arrange an alternative.

Special Events or Programs (fulfills your visit requirement)

• Break-dancing/Tech classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 4 – 7 PM

• On Tuesdays and Thursday, SWYC has around 6 interns that come from U of C, Depaul, NIU, and UIC, so the place is really active and busy. If you want to speak to SWYC interns about their experience, I'd be happy to arrange that.

• Arab American Action Network & the Southwest Youth Collaborative invite you to:

Occupation 101: Voices of the Silenced Palestinian Majority
A film screening & discussion

Friday, March 21
5pm - 8pm
Arab American Action Network
3148 W. 63rd Street

"A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Palestinian-Isreali conflict. 'Occupation 101' presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions.

Refreshments will be served. Flyer attached- spread the word!

For more info on the film: www.occupation101.com

On AAAN: www.aaan.org

On SWYC: www.swyc.org

>Harishi

Class 5 Wrap-Up

This week our class was focused on the topic of education. Students shared their personal experiences, their frustrations with school, and their vision for an ideal education. Our dialogue was enriched by the presence and participation of a group of 4 students and two community organizers from the Southwest Youth Collaborative.

The Southwest Youth Collaborative is a community-based non-profit organization working to empower youth in the southwest side of Chicago through arts, activism, education, sports, job placement, and technology programs. For more information about the Collaborative visit their website at http://swyc.org

Questions we discussed in class:

1) what is education?
2) what is school?
3) are these two things the same?
4) if not, why?
5) in what ways does school limit our education? in what ways does it promote it?

Journal Prompts:

Because of spring break, we will not have class on Wednesday, March 26th. However, you are still responsible for two journal entries and a mandatory (and hopefully educational) visit to the Southwest Youth Collaborative. Logistics about the visit can be found on the following post.

Journal Prompt #1 (must be written and submitted before your visit to the Collaborative)

Part 1. What are your reflections from the class discussion? Feel free to respond to any of the questions posed above.

Part 2. Before you make your visit to the Southwest Youth Collaborative, what are your expectations of the trip? Are you nervous, excited, or apathetic? What do you think about this assignment?

Use this journal as an opportunity to self-reflect. If you feel uncomfortable sharing your journal entry with other readers, let us know, and we'll absolutely respect your request.

Journal Prompt #2 (must be written and submitted after your visit to the Collaborative)

Describe your experience. Compare and contrast it to your expectations. Were you surprised by anything? What did you learn? What new questions did you walk away with? Would you recommend the assignment to other UIC students?

Use this journal as an opportunity to self-reflect. If you feel uncomfortable sharing your journal entry with other readers, let us know, and we'll absolutely respect your request.

Food for Thought

Generation Q (the Quiet Americans) - a NYTimes article written by Thomas Friedman.

"America needs a jolt of the idealism, activism and outrage (it must be in there) of Generation Q. That’s what twentysomethings are for — to light a fire under the country. But they can’t e-mail it in, and an online petition or a mouse click for carbon neutrality won’t cut it. They have to get organized in a way that will force politicians to pay attention rather than just patronize them."

where's the outrage in college campuses? and what role does online activism play in the overall goal of social change?

you guys are the real experts when it comes to these questions. i'm looking forward to hearing your comments.

>daniel

Class 4 Wrap-Up

In the first hour of class, Nathaniel Whittemore from Northwestern University presented a lecture entitled "A History of Citizen Philanthropy." Through an exploration of England's abolitionist movement in the late 18th and early 19th century, Nathaniel constructed an analytical framework out of concepts and lessons derived from the past.

When studying a situation consider the following questions:

Who are the Actors? What are their Interests? Their Perceptions? And the Context in which they live? Who has the Power? How much? And what kind?

Nathaniel posed two key questions in his presentation:

1) How can humanitarianism both challenge and reinforce inequality?
2) How would the abolitionist movement be remembered? What were its' long-term consequences?

In second hour of class, Jon Marino from Northwestern University divided the class into 3 groups and led us in an exercise with the following instructions:

You are a group of philanthropists working together to decide which of the following projects to fund. You have a collective budget of $10,000 to give to one of the following three projects.

-Financial Director for a School in Uganda
-Medicine for a TB outbreak in China
-Human Rights Advocacy in Guatemala

1. Come to a consensus decision about which project most people in the group want to support after weighing the tradeoffs you see embedded in each.

2. Identify 2 or 3 points of debate that your group spent the most time on when making your decision.

3. Think about the pieces of information that you feel are missing from the descriptions that would have made your decision easier.

This exercise introduced us to a number of inherent trade-offs that are embedded within choices we face in international development. No project is perfect. And different people with unique interests, values, and experiences make different choices.

At the end of class, Nathaniel presented us with this journal prompt:

If you had a $100,000, what would you do with it? And why? Describe your project using the analytical framework proposed in Nathaniel's presentation (see above).

>Daniel

Story of Good Intentions Abused

The following letter was forwarded to me from Cat Quinn after her presentation last Wednesday. The letter and attached article from ABC news present us with a cautionary tale of how good intentions can be abused.

Any thoughts on this issue? What, if anything, can be done? We're hungry for your comments.

>Daniel

In Latin America, there are deep suspicions that the U.S. Embassy recruits church missionaries, peace corps workers, and U.S. business people as spies on civilian organizations which the United States believes may threaten U.S. interests. Given the considerable number of U.S. government covert operations carried out worldwide by the CIA, this is not an irrational fear. Incidents like this one below in Bolivia remind Latin Americans that they should remain cautious of trusting U.S. citizens, even those of good will. For additional insight, check http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=964&thisview=item /index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=964&thisview=item>. These U.S covert operations in Latin America disrespect civil society and undermine democratic institutions. These practices are counterproductive, and should end.

Gary L. Cozette, Program Director
Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America (CRLN)

Article from ABC NEWS - Exclusive: Peace Corps, Fulbright Scholar Asked to 'Spy' on Cubans, Venezuelans.

Class 3 Wrap-Up

A brief case study of the instructors' experiences in Uganda was presented in the class to provoke dialogue and serve as an introduction to Cat Quinn's presentation on Concern America.

Main points presented:

1. A group of young student from the United States were compelled to go to Uganda after watching a documentary film.
   
   
2. In Uganda, they were introduced to a community-based organization working to alleviate the consequences of the HIV/AIDS crisis.
   
   
3. The organization asked the group to help them build an orphanage to house and educate some of the many children orphaned by AIDS in rural Southwestern Uganda.
   
   
4. After extensive research back in the United States, the students found that orphanages should only be used as a last resort. Instead, studies unanimously support community-based solutions that keep children in the homes of relatives or neighbors.
   
   
5. The student group switched their focus, from building an orphanage to addressing the psycho/social needs of orphaned children through art empowerment projects. These projects offered community members an opportunity to share their stories using art as a means of expression.
   
   
6. The community-based organization does not understand the necessity of art projects in the context of obvious material needs.
   
   
7. Lack of understanding leads to mistrust which strains and ultimately dissolves the relationship between the student group and the Ugandan community based-organization.

Questions to consider:

• What went wrong?
• Did the students make a mistake by going to Uganda in the first place?
• Should they have responded to the explicit desire of the community by building an orphanage? Or were they right to follow the unanimous recommendations of researchers?
• Is it right to continue with a project that addresses a need that's not a priority within the community?
• How is trust built between two groups coming into collaboration with their own preconceived notions and returning to completely different realities?

Presentation and Discussion with Cat Quinn

The brief analysis of this case study was followed by a presentation and Q + A session with Cat Quinn from the international NGO Concern America.

The screening of a documentary film that chronicles the 35-year history and philosophies of Concern America was a starting point for a conversation that touched on the topics of popular education and the dangers of 'good intentions.'

At the end of her presentation, Cat read the following story from the Training for Transformation guide to introduce the journal prompt for our next class.

Remember the following prompt is only a SUGGESTION. You can write your journal entry about any topic that interests or excites you or any thoughts you'd like to voice or explore. What sparks your imagination? With all of that said...

The Prompt:

After reading the passage below by Anne Hope think about a time when you were entering a community/group as either an "expert" or on the other end as a community/group member.

A few questions to think about...

What did you learn from this experience? What does it mean to be an "expert?" What qualifications did this person have to be considered an "expert?" Was there a need for an outside expert to come into the community?

If you can't think of any personal experiences, then comment on the following passage.

Anne Hope, Training for Transformation:

This exercise was developed from a real life experience in Uganda in 1959. A village had numerous problems in both the health field (all types of worms, malaria, no clinic) and a very poor school from which the teachers were nearly always absent. In a village meeting the people really did insist that their top priority was to make a football field. I was appalled but the CDO very wisely encouraged the group to go ahead. They made their football field, started playing football, organized a team, played matches against other villages. The football field was a turning point in the life of the village. They had gained self-confidence, a structure for communicating with one another, and a sense that they were capable of changing things. Later they tackled many other, "more important" projects. But were they really more important? Was not their own intuition that they needed something that would build their own sense of themselves as a community, and their confidence that they could achieve their own goals, far more important than my outsider priority that they needed a clinic? This was also a turning point in my own education about how to work with communities. Later I heard many other stories of how football fields had helped deal with serious problems of teenage drinking.

>Harishi

Attendance and Participation Policy

There's a new law in town and 2 deputies to enforce it.

More than one unexcused absence or missing journal entry will result in a failed grade for this seminar.

Our Reasoning:

1) There are only 8 classes in the seminar. 2 missed classes, therefore, amounts to 1/4 of the entire course.

2) The class is discussion-based and we want everyone to participate by sharing their experiences and thoughts in class. When you miss class, all of the students, including Harish and I, miss out on the insightful comments and personal experiences you have to offer.

>Deputies Yang and Patel