NYS Community Improvement Through Youth (CITY) Project

DaTruf – a magazine for young men – written, edited and published by CITY teens

An — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:12:36 +0000

This summer, the CITY Teen Leaders learned about publishing a magazine. Michelle Pratt, a community volunteer, worked with the teen leaders, to write, edit and publish a magazine focused on young males, their issues and their health. The title of the magazine is “Da Truf”. Articles in the magazine focussed on topics such as stereotypes, trust issues, abusive behaviors, and many others. A pdf copy of DaTruf is available by clicking here.

Camille is asking Michelle for advice on magazine.

CITY Ball

An — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:48:27 +0000

Jazzy is calling for donations made to the game

The members in the Community Improvement Through Youth (CITY) Project are learning how to fund raise by organizing and hosting a basketball tournament. This community event will raise money to support programs at the Broome County Urban League in Binghamton and OASIS Afterschool Program in Endicott. This will help the children in these programs to continue to have activities to do rather than cause problems

The Teen Leaders went through many hours of collaboration and planning before they could finalize the details of the event. The tournament was held August 14^th starting at 2pm at Columbus Park. The event consisted of 32 teams at $5 per person playing on four courts. There were two 16-team brackets for a scholastic division and an open division. Winners received team trophies for the three top finishes. The 3-on-3 format ensured that everyone had a good chance of winning.

The leaders were able to talk to Damien Cromwell who works recording/video studio where he will help make the video about the event. Jen Lesco helped with getting the t-shirts made for the participants in the games.

From this fundraiser the CITY Teen Leaders learned how to share ideas and divide up work evenly between all the members to get everything done. They learned to call and write letters of donations to places such Sam’s Club, Wegman’s, and Wal-Mart. One of the CITY Teen Leaders, Miguel Southee, designed the basketball t-shirt that every participant received for free. Using the program Microsoft Word the leaders spent many hours in front of the computer preparing the rules and regulations for the tournament and writing letters to sponsors and donators.

If something were to go wrong or something did not work out as planned, then back to the drawing board and more work had to be done. Members learned to work together to put this event together to help other youth like them.

Tech Training @ Boys & Girls Club in Endicott

Shameka — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 03:40:36 +0000

The Broome CITY Project held a tech training at the Boys & Girls Club in Endicott today. Celeste Carmichael, CITY Tech Coordinator, demonstrated how to post to the blog-style website, how to add photos and add video to the website. Watch here for new content!

Black History Play

Eli — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:44:11 +0000

Students from the CITY Project put on a play for fifth graders at Theodore Roosevelt. CITY Project stands for Community Improvement Through Youth and we are also known as the Agents of Change. The students dedicated their time and work into this play. They gave up their lunch just to educate younger students on Black History Month. The students made flash cards and even had costumes to go with their performance. The students also made a bus with the word ” Change” on the side. Some of the people in the play included Martin Luther King, Jackie Robinson, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Barrack Obama and many more. The fifth graders at Roosevelt Elementary enjoyed the skit. The kids also got candy.

CITY Project goes to Albany

Bria — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:24:35 +0000

In February, two members from the CITY Project in Endicott and four members from Binghamton went to the capital of New York, Albany. These members went to the Capitol Building to spread the ideas of CITY Project. They met Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, Assemblyman Clifford Crouch, and State Senator Tom Libous. They spoke with their legislators about the events and projects to help their schools and places around their communities. They met other youth and learned about youth programs throughout New York State. They also witnessed the making of new laws.

Sharing CITY with the Community

Barbyly — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:58:47 +0000

On April 16 Barbyly Noel and An Ngo, members of the CITY Project, attended a Children and Youth Service Council meeting. An and Barbyly attended along with Dr. June Mead, CITY Project’s state director, and presented the CITY Project: A Civic Engagement Model as the program has been the recipient of many awards. An and Barbyly got to talk about some of the projects they have done with CITY and shared some of their personal experiences with the CITY Project. The community organization members were impressed with the youth and asked many questions about how the project works, how we got together, and what we like most about being involved. it was a very rewarding experience as youth to be able to speak to a group of adults.

Caroling at the Handicapped Children’s Association

Danielle — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:58:32 +0000

In December 2008, CITY Project from Binghamton and Endicott went to the Handicapped Children’s Association dressed as reindeers and Santa Claus and sang for the children – ages 1 to 5.

Miguel Southee dressed up as Rudolph and while the Project was singing, he danced with some of the boys and girls. Dylan Bridges also dressed up as Santa Claus. We gave out candy canes to spread holiday cheer.

After we finished caroling, we played with the children. Seeing them interact with us really touched our hearts. Our goal was to celebrate the holidays with the children and their families. We accomplished it!!!!!!

The parents and guardians came up to us and thanked us so much for having their children on our minds.

If we could do it all over again, we definitely would!

Letters to Gov. Patterson

Thomal — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:53:51 +0000

CITY Project Students Wrote to Governor Patterson

Programs like CITY Project which help youth in many different ways could be left with no funding. The CITY Project helps us improve ourselves, teaches us different ways to handle problems, shows us our true potential, keeps us in line, as well as many other qualities that can help us as adults.

Some of the students from CITY Project that wrote Gov. Patterson On February 2nd 2009 CITY Project students wrote letters to Governor Patterson to tell him how budget cuts may affect us. Budget cuts may be devastating to many in the community but the youth in the community would be affected the hardest.

In writing these letters we expressed ourselves in positive ways and allowed us to express our feelings about the cuts as well as telling how it may affect us personally. It also showed us many different ways of expressing ourselves that can lead to helping us in the very near future. We explained to the governor some of the activities we do within our group and how we try to help our community. We also stated that we (the students) of CITY Project would not be the only ones hurt from this cut but so many other programs in our community and the state as a whole would be negatively impacted. We also told the governor about how much fun we have and how we are very diverse and how this may help us in many different ways in our future.

My First Day In The CITY Project…By James, Luis, and Julia

James — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:53:47 +0000

Today we had this meeting of sorts. We learned to post articles right here on our Blog. I decided to write about our three new members, - Julia, Luis, and Moi (James) – . The CITY Project is VERY cool, and…I like it, alot. We plan on continuing our participation here in the CITY Project.

The Endicott Carriage House

Dylan — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:53:21 +0000

In Endicott we talked to the village board to see what we could do as a project to improve the community. Mr. Frank Flint said that we should look at the “Old Carriage House”. This building was a historic Endicott Johnson “Home of the Square Deal” building. It is located behind the library which was originally Endicott Johnson’s house. The Carriage house is beat up, dirty, falling apart, and it is in need of landscaping work. So the Endicott group came up with a plan to redo the landscaping, clean it up, add some attractive things like flowers or a sign to let people know what the building is.