Happy Birthday Dr. King!
This coming January 15th, 2019 will mark Dr. Martin Luther Kings Jr’s 80th birthday!
In honor of his legacy of service to peace and justice for all, the annual Dr. MLK Jr Day of Service happens each and every year around his birthday (see: https://www.nationalservice.gov/serve-your-community/mlk-day-service)
This year, activities will take place on January 21st all over the country.
The City of Oakland is also assisting to facilitate volunteerism in the City of Oakland.
If you would like to create your own event or find one, check out: http://www2.oaklandnet.com/mlkday/#volunteer
As you may know, we, 1stSaturdays.com, promote the 1st Saturday of each month as a monthly volunteer day at school sites. Schools sign up on our site: 1stSaturdays.com and their school is mapped as a location open to volunteers.
We ask all the organizations and individuals to come out and host or participate in the Dr. MLK jr Day of Service. However, there is room for more service throughout the year. For example, when the MLK Service Day event is over, has the MLK Service Day event empowered the people that live there? Has it improved the general space i.e. garden, park, etc? If so, for how long?
These questions, I asked years ago after hosting an MLK Jr Volunteer Day at Castlemont High School. The answer to did it empower the people? The adults had a great time and shared a willingness to return and support in the near future. But not the impact we had intended. if you notice on the group picture, not many youth were present.
Did we improve the space? We did! Not long after our event, a science teacher took it over and the space continues to grow to this very day! However, prior to her taking over, I returned to visit the space around a month later. I noticed the school was not maintaining the garden since our volunteer day. Many weeds had returned.
Then it hit me. Can volunteers come back once a month to help keep these projects maintained and thriving?. Many of the volunteers shared they would come back. But even if these volunteers come in to maintain the space, how does this empower the people that live there?
Our “do now” strategy to empower “the people” is #1stSaturdays.We define these “people” as those connected to the school in the neighborhood. When it comes to empowering people from a neighborhood, our stance is to assist them with becoming more organized to empower themselves.
In our pursuit of “organizing a school” to empower its community, we came up with three main organization “the people” could all fit into. Once we recruit “the people” to fit into these organizations, we then focus on these organizations becoming functioning and eventually to collaborate. This vision is what we call #Familyhood.
In a nutshell, a schools #Familyhood is its Student Government Association, Parent Teacher Association and Alumni Association in collaboration. The vision of #Familyhood is to empower these organizations to enable them to empower the rest.
1st Saturdays promotes space dedicated to each of these organizations (i.e. tables/both spaces) and minutes during the 1st Saturdays agenda to share updates of each organization. Even if the school does not have these organizations functioning, an update could share next steps to have the organization functioning.The root of this community development plan is Student Government in action with guidance from their Alumni Association.
i recently wrote a brief pamphlet called The Vision #Familyhood and it’s “do now ” strategy #1stSaturdays to share our vision/strategy and ways you can get involved.
If you decide to host a Dr. MLK King Service Day Event, consider joining #Familyhood to keep your projects going year round, while empowering the people from the neighborhood.
We will not be hosting a 1stSaturdays in January and February of 2019.
We will be hosting a Dr. MLK Jr Day of Service on January 21st, 2019 at McClymonds High School with Planting Justice.
We will resume 1st Saturdays on March the 3rd, 2019.
We thank you in advance for your support.
Hotep
David N. Roach
Co-Founder/ Director
The Familyhood Connection
droach@1stSaturdays.com
