Accessible Transportation | Y4C Text Team | Friday November 04, 2011 4:51 pm EDT

To whom this may concern,

One year ago, the five organization that make up Y4C came together at URI campus to unanimously decide on our next big campaign idea. Our Youth Bill of Rights (located at y4cri.org **Mayor Angel Tavares, RIPTA CEO and many others have signed this bill of rights. You should too if you haven’t!**) was created by our steering committee with the help of all the youths in Providence affected by these issues.  We brought together the different issues that affect youth lives that needed to be heard and improved and brought it to the attention of the Mayoral Candidates at our Mayoral Candidates Forum. However, this was not a simple process. We had to focus on one issue out of all the issues that are stated in our Youth Bill of Rights. On October 30, 2010, we declared the Transportation for Education to be our central campaign. This was only the first step to a long arduous journey. Even so this year, we have accomplished so much.

The beginning of this year, we have been gathering all the information needed to be able to present a concrete idea. We’ve researched information on the requirements for obtaining bus passes, the people in charge of providing them, the price to purchase them and most important, personal stories about youths that aren’t able to receive bus passes and the effect it has on them. We have had meeting with Tom Brady, the former superintendent of Providence Public School Department in which we presented our case on how hard it was for youth to go to school. At “A Wake up Call to Action,” a meeting that the governor held at the Rhode Island Convention center, one of our youths, Jackie, was able to ask a question. It was like our lucky day because they were only answering about three. It was after Jackie’s informative question about our Transportation for Education campaign that we were greeted with applause and praise and a conversation with the CEO of RIPTA. A month later, he joined us for one of our meetings to hear the inside scoop on our campaign. Our meetings with him included presentations of our idea and plan. In response we hoped to hear their perspective and how they could help us in making our idea a reality.

 In the process of speaking and meeting with many important people, our media team recorded and took pictures of the significant events. Videos and photos of members of organization and helpful advocates at RIPTA board meetings, Free Minds Free People Convention and much more can be found online at y4cri.org as well. Facebook, twitter and blog sites have been a great help in bringing awareness to the public and community. Through Facebook pages, tweets and surveys, we have obtained a great amount of information that has benefitted us in learning more about the effects of no transportation.

Through our intense research and outreach, we have made connections with Ned Handy, Citizens Bank CEO who helped us come up with the idea of having companies advertise with RIPTA which in return would help us, Deborah Gist, Commissioner of Education, and Nikoli Onye, Adminstrator of Principals, who heard our issue and agreed that the side effects of not having a bus pass does harm a student’s academic attendance.

Recently, Y4C’s text team applied for youth venture in order to receive money to help jumpstart the campaign. They were successful in receiving the grant and began their first major outreach, the “flash mob,” a public demonstration launched at Providence Place Mall. Check out y4cri.org for a recap of how it all went down and the aftermath.

With all that flash mob stuff being said, we invite you to our jumpstart event for our campaign, transportation 4 education, on November 8^th at the salon on 57^th eddy street in downtown providence. Here we will be sharing data and going into debt of what we have researched over the past year. Please come out and support our campaign. The future of our education is in sight and we need transportation to help us get there!

Education | Y4C Summer Interns | Tuesday July 05, 2011 1:49 pm EDT

It's going to be great!  A concentrated taste of Providence with a movement in stepping towards social justice.  What does it mean for a mind to be free and how can a collective group of individuals fight for what's right?  Find out more at Free Minds Free People.

- Izzy 

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What do you think?

Education | Y4C Text Team & Friends | Friday March 04, 2011 5:35 pm EST

Last week Mayor Taveras sent termination letters to every Providence Public School teacher.  School closings will be announced next week. Why is this happening?  The city of Providence has a LARGE shortfall and the school department is feeling the cuts. There's been protest, anger and confusion. 

We had a long discussion about what's happening in our schools and a lot came up:

- How did we get into this budget crisis?

- Why March 1st?  Why are teachers notified so early about firing or possible layoffs?  Why can't the city have time to take the time it needs to make a decision so teachers don't have to be unnecessarily upset?

- Is this an attempt to get rid of more senior teachers?

- Is this an attempt to get rid of bad teachers?

-Will rehired teachers get paid less?

It's confusing and complicated.  Here are some of our thoughts. 

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One Youth's Perspective

Education | Jocivel Adames | Tuesday January 25, 2011 3:27 pm EST

Hello, my name is Jocivel Adames, and I am a youth from Young Voices.

When I first heard about this proposal it startled me, but a the same
time I felt that it did not really affect me in any way, and felt a
huge sigh of relieve, and lucky enough to have dogged a huge bullet.
But something else hit me. As soon as I heard that this will affect
the 2012 and later graduates, my brother's face, education and future
flashed before my eyes, and I said to myself that is is not completely
fair to him, and the rest of the students.

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Accessible Transportation | Tuesday December 28, 2010 10:05 am EST

Remember being a kid and jumping for joy when you saw the first snowflake of the season?  The thrill of seeing beauty fall from the sky, the hope for snow days, and the desire to drop down and make snow angels returns to many this time of year.  But for most of Providence youth, snow brings on the feeling of dread not joy.  The dread and disgust comes from the thought of walking miles to school in the frigid New England temperatures.  Wet shoes, cold ears and frost bitten fingers are not the way most of us want to spend our mornings day after day, however, for many Providence high school students, this is the reality every winter.

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