NYC Street Library News Fall 2015

WATCH the video: http://bit.ly/streetlibrary-videoADOPT the Street Library!: http://bit.ly/streetlibraryThank you for our adopters for supporting New York Street Library. We hope everyone had a wonderful summer, and continue to have a great year! Here’s what we’ve been up to this past summer in New York’s Street & Shelter Library projects:In addition to our weekly Saturday Street Libraries, we had the pleasure of hosting two Summer Festivals of Learning, one at Saratoga Park in the Ocean Hill area of Brooklyn, and one at The Jamaica Family Residence – a shelter for homeless families with children in Queens New York.This year’s theme was “science” – each participant (children and adults) had the opportunity to be a scientist for the day. Equipped with All Access Passes, everyone could do multiple science experiments around density, basic chemical reactions and crystallization, freezing points and states of matter, along with artistic creativity.We learned about density by experimenting by making layered liquid jars and lava lamps. We learned about chemical reactions by making volcanoes and watching them erupt! We made confetti rockets and enjoyed experimenting with velocity. We discovered how salt decreases the freezing point of liquids and with some elbow grease watched ice cream solidify right before our eyes! Discovering planetary alignment, using Styrofoam balls, paints, tissue paper, pipe cleaners and string we created our very own solar system mobiles!Last year the children loved our photo booth so we brought it back and in line with the theme we crafted a bunch of mad scientist props: a white lab coat, an Albert Einstein wig, beakers, mustaches, gloves, and googly eyed goggles. The children enjoyed it so much that we could barely get Shayrien out of the lab coat. She shared with everyone that she would be a teacher and a doctor someday. One of our older girls, Meghan, came to join us in the park and when she discovered our Mad Scientist photo booth, enthusiastically exclaimed “I’ve already got the hair!” Actually having her hair colored with a light blue/green rinse, and spiked out all over, she put on the googly eyed goggles and embraced her inner Dr. Jekyll!On day two of the Festival one of the boys didn’t have his All Access Pass. One of the facilitators asked him what happened to it. “My friends took it” he replied, looking away. “They didn’t want me to be a doctor.” “You can be whatever you want to be!” the facilitator replied, encouraging him to hold on to his dream to be a doctor. He smiled and began making a new badge. Doctor Zahkeem was back!As a great cool-down from the heat, volunteers, supporters, children, and parents joined together and played several water games: from a water balloon fight, to water balloon relays, to water bucket and sponge relays, and wrapped up the day with an enjoyable and cooling experiment – Ice Cream Making from Scratch! It was great to see how the parents and supporters from the community engaged with all the children as well, facilitating potato sack & egg relay races. They also helped out with making and enjoying the confetti poppers, and assisted the smaller children in shaking up their mixtures for ice cream in the ice bags and buckets so they could solidify. At the end of the day, as we showed our sincere appreciation to the families for participating, one of the parents replied, “Sure thing! We love to have you guys around, so thank you!”The Festivals are such a great joy each summer for the community, for our team, and for all who come out and volunteer with us. This year, along with our Volunteer Corps members, we had 5 additional volunteers who, in support of the work we do, took time out from their own work and lives to help facilitate. Maryann enjoys it so much that she traveled a second year in a row all the way from Boston to participate!Each year we seek to create a safe space where we can continue to encourage learning and fun. We help the children, families, and community try new things and interact with neighbors they don’t know yet. They create and take home projects they can repeat at home and build long-term friendships.It is also a great time for us to become better acquainted with parents and others in the community. We’re always trying to be visible and transparent. A number of community business owners support us by letting us use their restrooms, giving us a few materials, and just being community reference people. They recognize us as the Street Library, and because of our efforts in their community, they welcome us with love.In July, we were invited to participate in Ocean Hill Family Day, which we were all happy to do. In preparation for this event we gathered with the children and several parents to make posters that reflected the community love, the color scheme, and the theme for the day – Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now. As our goal is always to foster reading, we began the day with a meet & greet of the faces we didn’t quite know, then spread our blankets and books out and enjoyed feeding our brains. With all the activity and excitement, we moved from reading to water games that the children remembered from the Festival of Learning. This time we had a group of teenagers and parents join in on the fun as well too! That’s not our norm, so it was great!During the course of the summer Ms. Sanchez, a community activist, head of the Tenant Association, and our point person in the community has been working diligently to obtain access and responsibility for the development’s Community Center. We are pleased to report that shortly before Ocean Hill Day she was granted this access and responsibility and has welcomed us right on in! She has allowed us to store some materials there, and has gone as far as to clean out an entire cabinet space for our use alone. Thanks to her we also no longer need to worry about being outside in the cold when the winter months arrive or any other time we should need to for that matter. Way to go Ms. Sanchez!Also in July, we had the privilege of partnering with a local financial company, Weiser Mazars, for a Day of Creativity project at the Shelter Library in Queens. Thanks to one of our summer Street Library volunteers, Renaud Viot, who was an employee for the company at the time, we were privileged to be a part of their volunteer month. We were granted two volunteer partnership projects, one in which we made Shadow Box Aquariums with the children and families at the Jamaica Family Residence.For this day, Weiser not only funded the entire project, but also sent 8 volunteers to aid with the facilitation! We painted wooden boxes, traced, cut, and pasted various types of fish & sea décor to the inside of the box, and covered the face of the boxes with tinted blue clear plastic wrap, creating the effect of a sea in a box. We had a really great turnout of parents & child participation, and both children and their parents absolutely loved being creative together! Even the shelter’s staff members cycled through periodically to enjoy the excitement and soak up some laughter.As we roll on out of the summer, and into the fall & winter seasons, we’re excited to hear all about the children’s back to school experiences, and are super excited for our new space inside the Ocean Hill community center. We are also very excited to welcome new volunteers and interns into our team this month.Virginie and Guillaume Charvon and their three precious little cubs have journeyed all the way from Boston to New York City to be a part of our team and community! They hit the pavement running, strengthening partnerships at the United Nations and with the New Hyde Charter School in the Bronx New York, and joining in the planning and facilitation of the Adult Group at the Fourth World House, the Street Library in Ocean Hill and the Story Garden/Shelter Library in Queens. We’re grateful for their work and experiences at Street Libraries in France and Burkina Faso, and looking forward to their aid in the overall thriving of the team.We also have a volunteer corps intern who will be joining us this month from California, who we are very excited to welcome as well! Joshua has recently graduated from college with a degree in communications and design, and hopes to learn more about the Fourth World Movement and how he to can use his skills to help individuals living in poverty.On an inside note, along with Joshua, we have the privilege of hosting three additional interns for this Fall semester from Columbia University. Two will be working with our lead facilitator Cristina on various United Nations projects and missions, and the other with our National Communications Director, Katelyn on the movement’s media and national communications. We are thrilled to assist these young adults in furthering their careers and their passions by working together in different aspects toward a common goal – the eradication of extreme poverty.Thanks to your support, we’re able to continue and deepen our Street Libraries in Ocean Hill and Queens, strengthening our relationships with the children and their families in communities facing extreme poverty. Thank you!All our best,ATD Fourth World New York Team