6 minute read
Community Engagement
AT A GLANCE: COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
New Partnership with Honey Shine, Inc. and the Mourning Family Foundation Sweetened St. Philip’s 2016 Summer Program
Seven time NBA All-Star and Hall of Fame inductee, Alonzo Mourning, and his wife Tracy Wilson-Mourning, take the Parable of the Faithful Servant seriously – “to whom much is given, much is required.” Nearly twenty years ago, they established The Mourning Family Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Miami focused on youth development, education, and enrichment. Since then, they have raised over $25 million to support various programs throughout Miami, including the Overtown Youth Center and Honey Shine, Inc., an after-school care and summer program founded by Tracy in 2002, specifically to mentor and nurture girls.
In recent years, the Mournings have worked to broaden their footprint beyond Florida through partnerships with organizations in Portland, Oregon, Los Angeles, California, and now – Dallas! St. Philip’s was tremendously blessed to have been chosen as a pilot program for Honey Shine’s Dallas initiative. The Mourning Family Foundation and Camp Honey Shine’s investment in St. Philip’s 2016 seven-week STEAM focused Summer Camp, enhanced the lives of over 100 children. Their support ensured a quality, engaging environment where our summer scholars could beat summer learning loss through daily classes with certified teachers in Math, Science, and Literature and be culturally and artistically enriched through daily classes by trained artists in Music, Theater, and Visual Art.
Additionally, the summer scholars regularly broke out in gender specific sessions for conversations and activities for personal growth, character development, team-building, mentoring, journaling, and self-expression. Over the course of the camp, it was exciting to see a sisterhood and brotherhood develop among our campers, who also took weekly field trips to take their learning beyond the school walls. “Alonzo and I are on a mission to enlighten, brighten, nurture, and empower the paths of young people,” explained Tracy, who spent a week in Dallas to witness our partnership in action. “We are especially committed to young people from disenfranchised communities, like South Dallas.”
Approximately 80% of St. Philip’s summer scholars reside in our key service communities that include South Dallas/Fair Park, Oak Cliff, and Pleasant Grove. Many of our campers aren’t regular students during the school year, however, they are provided a unique St. Philip’s School “experience.” Several of St. Philip’s faculty teach in the summer program, campers participate in a daily chapel, and all of the educational programs are curriculum based – even the classes exploring the arts.
Given the quality of St. Philip’s summer program, we have several campers who participate every year. Dana Mundy’s children attend area public schools and have attended St. Philip’s summer camp for six years. “I’ve seen so much growth in my kids,” she explains. “My son became a volunteer three years ago after he aged out of the summer camp. He’s become a lot more responsible and mature.” Mundy further explained that her daughter’s reading has improved over the years and her creativity has been sparked through the art classes. “The strength of St. Philip’s is that every kid knows they are loved, wanted, and respected when they’re here. It’s love. Love is the base!”
Strong partnerships and collaborations truly are the key to the success of many of our community centered programs. St. Philip’s 2016 summer program would not have been as sweet or successful without the tremendous support of Alonzo and Tracy Mourning. “We’re supposed to be worldwide,” Tracy explains. “This program is a model that is destined to be replicated and bless thousands.”
“It was a pleasure to support rising 6th grade students this past summer and to share the love of reading with them. The selected novel of study was THE SKIN I’M IN by Sharon G. Flake. This realistic fiction novel explores a young girl’s struggles with selfesteem and her dissatisfaction over being dark skinned. While study of the novel translated easily into lessons about character development, it also naturally lent itself to the exploration of figurative language, grammar, vocabulary and other content that is often not practiced over the summer and contributes to the achievement gap for some students. The scholars who participated in St. Philip’s summer camp were immersed in thought-provoking, invigorating, and hands – on enriching activities that no doubt set the stage for getting back to school.
As a full time educator at St. Philip’s School and Community Center for twenty-four years, working with students is my passion. The opportunity to engage with the children in the summer camp, gave me the chance to put a different spin on what I typically do throughout the school year. My horizons were broadened by the time I spent with the kiddos. One could say it was a chance to celebrate the “skin I’m in!”
A Teacher’s Testimonial - Ramona Wilson
Full S.T.E.A.M. Ahead at St. Philip’s!
The idea of a S.T.E.A.M. focused education – a synergetic approach to integrating The Arts with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math – is literally gaining steam at St. Philip’s. Hats off to all of our summer program partners who ensured St. Philip’s provided a top notch summer S.T.E.A.M. experience to over 125 children, ages 2 – 12. The Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration and St. Paul United Methodist Church guaranteed the “S” in our S.T.E.A.M. camp also stood for Spirituality. Additionally, our partnerships with Big Thought, the Dallas Tennis Association, Lone Star Wind Orchestra, Soul Rep Theatre Company and Zimmarimbas allowed the “A” in our version of S.T.E.A.M. to embrace both the Arts and
Athletics!
AmeriCorps continues to be one of our most consistent partnerships, providing teaching assistants for the summer program for the fourth year in a row. In addition to Honey Shine, Inc. and The Mourning Family Foundation, Brighter Bites was a new partner. The Houston based non-profit delivers fresh fruit and veggies to families and programs residing in food deserts. For the duration of St. Philip’s summer program, every Thursday, our scholars and their families were given two full bags of fresh food with suggested recipes to encourage the “brighter” benefits of eating colorful and nutritious food.
Even our youngest campers enjoyed S.T.E.A.M. focused activities – from building dinosaurs to making play-doh from scratch.
Our campers were greatly enriched by the cultural flair of the work they created this summer, much of which reflected Native American, African, and Asian culture.
Campers shined in a performance of "Prints and Patterns", an original play written by recent Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts graduate and South Dallas native, Laneedra Cornelius. The play explored the rich history behind quilts and other fabrics in African and African-American culture.
Dallas City of Learning's new MOBILE TECH BUS – sponsored in part by Big Thought, City of Dallas, and Dallas Independent School District – stopped by St. Philip's this summer. The bus came complete with lessons in robotics, 3-D printing, design, and so much more.
