Empowering Our Youth in
Issues of Social Justice through the Arts
Identifying the needs for Tsedakah and Tikun Olam in our Community
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It
comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs
restructuring.”
— Martin Luther King, April 4, 1967, New York City
Background and Research
The fight against poverty and injustice has been an uphill battle for many years. In our country the three traditional sources of income have been marriage, markets and the state which serve to protect people from poverty. Even when working hard and playing by the rules, many have been hit hard by major economic upheavals and victim-blaming policies (Abramovitz, 2007). These blows have been met with slow job growth, tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor, not to mention the war in Iraq. Social problems of poverty, health care, child welfare, affordable housing, diversity, violence in schools and yes, even eating disorders have resulted.
These same issues and concerns are also major hardships in our community of Sarasota, FL. Sarasota is at first glance a southwest Florida beach community that consists of several barrier islands and population composed of permanent and native residents, transplants and snowbirds (part-time residents). Sarasota is part of a county that has over 300,000 people with a city population of roughly 52,000. A breakdown of occupations reveals 27 percent in management professional and related occupations; 25 percent in sales and office occupations; and 22 percent in service occupations. 77 percent work for companies while 9 percent work for the government and 8 percent are self- employed. Health care, education and social services top the industry list, followed by arts/entertainment and retail trade. The average salary is $25,000 and median income $34,077.
The crime rate is very high in Sarasota - 81 per 1000 residents Currently foreclosures number 1,353 with over 25,000 persons seen between Sarasota and Manatee counties at homeless service providers in 2011. 1,629 students in the Sarasota County School System are listed as homeless. The average house listing is $557,000 with the median sale price at $140,000. One can conclude that there are a lot of very expensive homes on the market that are not selling. Over 50 percent of the population now rents a home.
The state of Florida is listed as 3rd in number of illegal immigrants: 980,000. Sarasota’s population is 47.4 percent male and 52.6 percent female. The Caucasian population is 86.3 percent, Hispanic 6.8 percent, Black 4.4 percent and Asian 1.3 percent. The average age is 50.5. Over 3,356 children were reported as some victim of domestic crime/violence with a high rate of removal to foster care.
Less than 20 percent of the community holds college degrees and the statistics for high school graduation are pitiful. 27 percent of the community holds a high school degree. Internally our high schools self-segregate but strike some balance by offering magnet programs. The northern high school is primarily Black and Hispanic with a small magnet population composed of middle class Caucasian students. The mid county high schools are primarily Caucasian with low to upper middle class students and contain some IB and gifted programs. South county high schools fall somewhere in between.
There is a lot of violence in the schools, racial tension and an abnormally high rate of suicide, car accidents, death from drug overdose, and other unnatural forms of death per this high school aged population. Additionally a percentage of the school population suffers from eating disorders, interestingly considered to be a new problem of social justice.
The economy has brought about many changes for much of the population in our county, but, for a part of the population there has been little change in lifestyle, though homes of the more stable population have significantly dropped in value in the past couple of years. City and county services, such as library hours have been slashed due to this economic downturn and lower tax revenues.
This is our community, which depending upon where you are, could look like a pristine ocean side paradise with beautiful homes, lots of restaurants, highly rated beaches, fancy cars, plenty of good medical care and hospitals, upscale boutiques and lots of live theater. Hidden in the fringes and in the public schools are the unfortunate statistics of those who are living lives devoid of social justice; homeless, unemployed, hungry, ill and without health insurance. And many of the wealthy transplants to our community support the opera and theatre, orchestra, museum, local college of art and design, and other arts venues so that our community appears to be highly cultured.
Not all is so grim, as we do have some exceptionally talented youth living in our community. Many of these youth attend a public magnet school for the gifted that has been rated one of the top schools in the country. In fact, many professionals move to our community so that their child(ren) may attend this tuition free school. Our IB program and High School for Visual and Performing Arts also have excellent reputations, as well as several private schools. Another excellent organization in our community that supports individuals, families and other agencies is the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee. This organization, part of a national group of Federations, supports programs in our community like Embracing Our Differences, which educates about tolerance and diversity and now has an international reputation. Aside from financial assistance to families and agencies in need, the Federation also educates and supports other diversity initiatives and issues of social justice, the state of Israel and is a watch dog for anti-Semitic acts in our community.
It is this organization and the young artistically talented members of the Jewish community that I propose to turn to begin a dialog of our county’s concerns. There are several teens living in this community who meet this above description, who are already involved in national and international issues of social justice. But, I would like to involve an even larger group of teens from this Jewish community in 8th through 12thgrades, to produce a program that uses the arts to deliver a message about our community’s challenges; to empower this group of teens and their audience to seek solutions and make changes in our community and the world.
Intervention Plan
The objectives of such a plan are (1) to bring to light local issues of social justice, (2) to empower teens to explore, discuss and seek solutions to the above issues and to persuade and inform the community and other teens, through methods of the arts, that we need to work on and make strides in solving these problems, and (3) to groom future community leaders and agents of change.
Students will use persuasive strategies in their presentation. These are sharing facts, offering solutions, sharing a new idea, telling a story and changing a perception. Additionally they may also use the following strategies: humor, excitement, audience involvement, trust building, inspiration building, emotional appeal, getting competitive and overcoming hostility (www.nycore.org/newsite/wp-content/up).
This group of young people is particularly poised to discuss these issues of concern and create a program because they have been raised with certain ideals embodied in Jewish values: Tsedakah (charity and service) and Tikun Olam (repairing the world). And they are involved in the arts, which through its methods of delivery are best suited to bring awareness to the list of challenges previously stated. Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities (http://www.naswdc.org//pressroom/features/i:.
This group of teens would be hand selected through referrals, recommendations and interviews facilitated by the area’s Jewish organizations and Federation. After a core group of students representing various disciplines in the arts (visual, performing, musical, poetry, film and dance) has been chosen, this group will meet, under adult supervision and social worker from Jewish Family Services, at the Federation or other public venue to discuss the local issues of social justice. Speakers on various topics related to the issues will also be invited to the group’s meetings. Further discussion and meetings would transpire to plan a program of performance and exhibition to be located at the Jewish Federation’s auditorium and display area. Also in the course of this program a blog would be created so that others from the community could share in the progress and also be used for communication between the participants. I anticipate the meetings to occur weekly and would allow six months to a year for preparation for such a program.
Students will create the program with financial assistance from the Federation, Jewish Family and Children Services and Embracing Our Differences Organization and other donation of time and money. Funds will be needed to create advertising, handouts, costumes and props and to secure audio/visual equipment and other materials.
I anticipate students writing their own scripts, choreographing dance, creating their own music and poetry and designing their own props, costumes, visuals and artworks. Professional volunteers will be sought to work with these students in the individual disciplines. The resulting program will be presented at the Jewish Federation’s facility that includes a theatre and area for display of artworks. The community, with particular emphasis on students, would be invited, with invitations being disseminated through the local public school system of Sarasota and Manatee counties.
A program of this nature will require a great deal of commitment and creativity, but will hopefully empower our local youth to find solutions to our community’s challenges that are affecting their fellow students and their families. These student presenters will inevitably become the leaders of tomorrow and inspire other students to do the same. This program, if successful, could then be used as a model to be undertaken by youth in other facets of our community.
Addendum
I would like to follow up the above program with another proposal to create a traveling exhibition for our community that would convey messages of inspiration, hope and social justice using Anne Frank’s diary, (widely known to teens and adults, written while hiding in an attic in Holland during the holocaust) as inspiration. This exhibit would consist of stories of local teens that have done something to help their local community, country or the world. The exhibit would carry the missive that everyone has the ability to do something for the greater good.
Resources and Links
Florida crime statistics including violent and property crime rates with murder, rape, assault, arson, larceny, burglary and car theft data reports.
http://www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/
YU students in Israel to examine social justice issues. In The Jewish Standard, online publlication of the Jewish Community in northern New Jersey.
http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/reframing_the_dialogue/21855
Listing of social issues from Multhnomah County Llibrary online research site http://www.multcolib.org
Youth making a difference travel to Lima, Peru to attend the Joining Hands Youth Conference, addressing water issues and global warming. Reported in the Newburgh, NY Circle News online publication. http://www.newburghcircle.com
Nycore is a group of public school educators committed to fighting for social justice in our schools and society. The Legacy Circle is a publication of New York Collective of Radical Educators.
http://www.nycore.org/newsite/wpcontent/uploads/Cultural_Arts_ITAG_BOOK.pdfil.cfm?newsitem=3DF9114C-9223-49C7-9F43F2AAA061922D
PsySR is an independent, non-profit organization that applies psychological knowledge and expertise to promote peace, social justice, human rights, and
sustainability http://www.psysr.org
The top five social justice issues facing social workers today. Online publication Social Work Today, March/April 2007, Vol 7, No 2, p 24.
http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/marapr2007p24.shtml
Homelessness statistics for Manatee and Sarasota Counties. Online resource, Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness http://www.suncoastpartnership.com
Lesson plan painting beauty and creating portraits. Online publication, Teaching Tolerance-a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
http://www.tolerance.org/activities?keys=Painting+Beauty&level=All&keyword=All
From the online publication, Teaching Tolerance - a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, students dissect the current social norms about physical size and appearance http://www.tolerance.org/activity/reshaping-body-image
Sarasota real estate overview site http://www.trulia.com
Issues of Social Justice through the Arts
Identifying the needs for Tsedakah and Tikun Olam in our Community
“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It
comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs
restructuring.”
— Martin Luther King, April 4, 1967, New York City
Background and Research
The fight against poverty and injustice has been an uphill battle for many years. In our country the three traditional sources of income have been marriage, markets and the state which serve to protect people from poverty. Even when working hard and playing by the rules, many have been hit hard by major economic upheavals and victim-blaming policies (Abramovitz, 2007). These blows have been met with slow job growth, tax cuts for the rich and spending cuts for the poor, not to mention the war in Iraq. Social problems of poverty, health care, child welfare, affordable housing, diversity, violence in schools and yes, even eating disorders have resulted.
These same issues and concerns are also major hardships in our community of Sarasota, FL. Sarasota is at first glance a southwest Florida beach community that consists of several barrier islands and population composed of permanent and native residents, transplants and snowbirds (part-time residents). Sarasota is part of a county that has over 300,000 people with a city population of roughly 52,000. A breakdown of occupations reveals 27 percent in management professional and related occupations; 25 percent in sales and office occupations; and 22 percent in service occupations. 77 percent work for companies while 9 percent work for the government and 8 percent are self- employed. Health care, education and social services top the industry list, followed by arts/entertainment and retail trade. The average salary is $25,000 and median income $34,077.
The crime rate is very high in Sarasota - 81 per 1000 residents Currently foreclosures number 1,353 with over 25,000 persons seen between Sarasota and Manatee counties at homeless service providers in 2011. 1,629 students in the Sarasota County School System are listed as homeless. The average house listing is $557,000 with the median sale price at $140,000. One can conclude that there are a lot of very expensive homes on the market that are not selling. Over 50 percent of the population now rents a home.
The state of Florida is listed as 3rd in number of illegal immigrants: 980,000. Sarasota’s population is 47.4 percent male and 52.6 percent female. The Caucasian population is 86.3 percent, Hispanic 6.8 percent, Black 4.4 percent and Asian 1.3 percent. The average age is 50.5. Over 3,356 children were reported as some victim of domestic crime/violence with a high rate of removal to foster care.
Less than 20 percent of the community holds college degrees and the statistics for high school graduation are pitiful. 27 percent of the community holds a high school degree. Internally our high schools self-segregate but strike some balance by offering magnet programs. The northern high school is primarily Black and Hispanic with a small magnet population composed of middle class Caucasian students. The mid county high schools are primarily Caucasian with low to upper middle class students and contain some IB and gifted programs. South county high schools fall somewhere in between.
There is a lot of violence in the schools, racial tension and an abnormally high rate of suicide, car accidents, death from drug overdose, and other unnatural forms of death per this high school aged population. Additionally a percentage of the school population suffers from eating disorders, interestingly considered to be a new problem of social justice.
The economy has brought about many changes for much of the population in our county, but, for a part of the population there has been little change in lifestyle, though homes of the more stable population have significantly dropped in value in the past couple of years. City and county services, such as library hours have been slashed due to this economic downturn and lower tax revenues.
This is our community, which depending upon where you are, could look like a pristine ocean side paradise with beautiful homes, lots of restaurants, highly rated beaches, fancy cars, plenty of good medical care and hospitals, upscale boutiques and lots of live theater. Hidden in the fringes and in the public schools are the unfortunate statistics of those who are living lives devoid of social justice; homeless, unemployed, hungry, ill and without health insurance. And many of the wealthy transplants to our community support the opera and theatre, orchestra, museum, local college of art and design, and other arts venues so that our community appears to be highly cultured.
Not all is so grim, as we do have some exceptionally talented youth living in our community. Many of these youth attend a public magnet school for the gifted that has been rated one of the top schools in the country. In fact, many professionals move to our community so that their child(ren) may attend this tuition free school. Our IB program and High School for Visual and Performing Arts also have excellent reputations, as well as several private schools. Another excellent organization in our community that supports individuals, families and other agencies is the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee. This organization, part of a national group of Federations, supports programs in our community like Embracing Our Differences, which educates about tolerance and diversity and now has an international reputation. Aside from financial assistance to families and agencies in need, the Federation also educates and supports other diversity initiatives and issues of social justice, the state of Israel and is a watch dog for anti-Semitic acts in our community.
It is this organization and the young artistically talented members of the Jewish community that I propose to turn to begin a dialog of our county’s concerns. There are several teens living in this community who meet this above description, who are already involved in national and international issues of social justice. But, I would like to involve an even larger group of teens from this Jewish community in 8th through 12thgrades, to produce a program that uses the arts to deliver a message about our community’s challenges; to empower this group of teens and their audience to seek solutions and make changes in our community and the world.
Intervention Plan
The objectives of such a plan are (1) to bring to light local issues of social justice, (2) to empower teens to explore, discuss and seek solutions to the above issues and to persuade and inform the community and other teens, through methods of the arts, that we need to work on and make strides in solving these problems, and (3) to groom future community leaders and agents of change.
Students will use persuasive strategies in their presentation. These are sharing facts, offering solutions, sharing a new idea, telling a story and changing a perception. Additionally they may also use the following strategies: humor, excitement, audience involvement, trust building, inspiration building, emotional appeal, getting competitive and overcoming hostility (www.nycore.org/newsite/wp-content/up).
This group of young people is particularly poised to discuss these issues of concern and create a program because they have been raised with certain ideals embodied in Jewish values: Tsedakah (charity and service) and Tikun Olam (repairing the world). And they are involved in the arts, which through its methods of delivery are best suited to bring awareness to the list of challenges previously stated. Social justice is the view that everyone deserves equal economic, political and social rights and opportunities (http://www.naswdc.org//pressroom/features/i:.
This group of teens would be hand selected through referrals, recommendations and interviews facilitated by the area’s Jewish organizations and Federation. After a core group of students representing various disciplines in the arts (visual, performing, musical, poetry, film and dance) has been chosen, this group will meet, under adult supervision and social worker from Jewish Family Services, at the Federation or other public venue to discuss the local issues of social justice. Speakers on various topics related to the issues will also be invited to the group’s meetings. Further discussion and meetings would transpire to plan a program of performance and exhibition to be located at the Jewish Federation’s auditorium and display area. Also in the course of this program a blog would be created so that others from the community could share in the progress and also be used for communication between the participants. I anticipate the meetings to occur weekly and would allow six months to a year for preparation for such a program.
Students will create the program with financial assistance from the Federation, Jewish Family and Children Services and Embracing Our Differences Organization and other donation of time and money. Funds will be needed to create advertising, handouts, costumes and props and to secure audio/visual equipment and other materials.
I anticipate students writing their own scripts, choreographing dance, creating their own music and poetry and designing their own props, costumes, visuals and artworks. Professional volunteers will be sought to work with these students in the individual disciplines. The resulting program will be presented at the Jewish Federation’s facility that includes a theatre and area for display of artworks. The community, with particular emphasis on students, would be invited, with invitations being disseminated through the local public school system of Sarasota and Manatee counties.
A program of this nature will require a great deal of commitment and creativity, but will hopefully empower our local youth to find solutions to our community’s challenges that are affecting their fellow students and their families. These student presenters will inevitably become the leaders of tomorrow and inspire other students to do the same. This program, if successful, could then be used as a model to be undertaken by youth in other facets of our community.
Addendum
I would like to follow up the above program with another proposal to create a traveling exhibition for our community that would convey messages of inspiration, hope and social justice using Anne Frank’s diary, (widely known to teens and adults, written while hiding in an attic in Holland during the holocaust) as inspiration. This exhibit would consist of stories of local teens that have done something to help their local community, country or the world. The exhibit would carry the missive that everyone has the ability to do something for the greater good.
Resources and Links
Florida crime statistics including violent and property crime rates with murder, rape, assault, arson, larceny, burglary and car theft data reports.
http://www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/
YU students in Israel to examine social justice issues. In The Jewish Standard, online publlication of the Jewish Community in northern New Jersey.
http://www.jstandard.com/content/item/reframing_the_dialogue/21855
Listing of social issues from Multhnomah County Llibrary online research site http://www.multcolib.org
Youth making a difference travel to Lima, Peru to attend the Joining Hands Youth Conference, addressing water issues and global warming. Reported in the Newburgh, NY Circle News online publication. http://www.newburghcircle.com
Nycore is a group of public school educators committed to fighting for social justice in our schools and society. The Legacy Circle is a publication of New York Collective of Radical Educators.
http://www.nycore.org/newsite/wpcontent/uploads/Cultural_Arts_ITAG_BOOK.pdfil.cfm?newsitem=3DF9114C-9223-49C7-9F43F2AAA061922D
PsySR is an independent, non-profit organization that applies psychological knowledge and expertise to promote peace, social justice, human rights, and
sustainability http://www.psysr.org
The top five social justice issues facing social workers today. Online publication Social Work Today, March/April 2007, Vol 7, No 2, p 24.
http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/marapr2007p24.shtml
Homelessness statistics for Manatee and Sarasota Counties. Online resource, Suncoast Partnership to End Homelessness http://www.suncoastpartnership.com
Lesson plan painting beauty and creating portraits. Online publication, Teaching Tolerance-a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
http://www.tolerance.org/activities?keys=Painting+Beauty&level=All&keyword=All
From the online publication, Teaching Tolerance - a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, students dissect the current social norms about physical size and appearance http://www.tolerance.org/activity/reshaping-body-image
Sarasota real estate overview site http://www.trulia.com