Bring Literacy to Begging Trafficked Children
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Connect * Design * Inspire
EdAdvocate creates innovative global pilot initiatives for underserved and maligned youth, allowing vulnerable populations to thrive. The inspiration for EdAdvocate began when its founder, a 13 year classroom teacher whose passion for teaching and learning was reinvigorated with the implementation of authentic education in her classroom. Budget strapped, frustrated with the monotonous classroom testing curriculum and lack of opportunities for her students, this teacher reached out to the community around her classroom. By partnering with professionals in her community, like museum curators, doctors, city planners, foreign service officers, engineers and architects, they worked to design real life learning experiences for maximum student engagement.* Her colleagues were inspired and wanted to do the same, but lacked the immense time required in the design of units as well as connections to community members, and EdAdvocate began.
In its inaugural initiative, EdAdvocate created a database of 50 community members and 25 classroom teachers to participate in curriculum experiences designed by EdAdvocate. The organization bridged the gap between the classroom and the community to great success: in participating classrooms, there was a large increase in student engagement, higher graduation numbers, increased test scores, lower gang involvement and higher collegiate applications. An EdAdvocate designed Urban Design Project found students examining rapid growth during the Industrial Revolution, discovering similar themes in their community, and working with local urban planners, the city council, and the city planning department to develop proposals. The winning project was actually built within the community. Another project based learning experience found students attending an Ai Weiwei exhibit on human rights at Alcatraz island, and later worked with local museums to coordinate a project on the evolution of United States foreign policy and the role of the presidency. The local museums dedicated entire floors to our student’s museum exhibition, and reinvigorated the dying non profit.
EdAdvocate now funds global pilot programs and is raising funds for its current initiative. In Senegal, there are 100,000 children trafficked into schools where they have a tradition of enrolling children, mainly boys between the ages of 4 to 15, into Quranic schools named Daaras. The classes are limited to a few hours of training in Arabic each day, and the rest of the day the boys are sent out to beg on the streets for food and money. This results in many of the children living at the Daaras and never enrolling in the national education system. There is no support for this population, and there are no government sponsored literacy programs for this population. The layers of complexity increase when these children enter adulthood as an illiterate population, as a result they suffer from high unemployment and high poverty, with few viable solutions given their lack of preparation for the workforce. Many are lost, floating citizens, as they were trafficked across borders to which they cannot return, in a home that will not claim them as residents. They are a vulnerable population in every aspect of their lives. In June, EdAdvocate will execute a pilot education initiative which will take a pilot classroom of trafficked children, and provide them with a full year literacy program supported with imported curriculum and technology. Data from this program will not only be made public, but will also be given to the Senegalese Department of Education, allowing for widespread change from the initiative.
We need support. We are unique in that we are nimble and effective, every dollar you donate goes to the classroom. This is an opportunity to fund innovative initiatives with trustworthy experts, with established local partners for real grassroots change to give children literacy, and hope. In such divisive times, filled with tragedy, we often feel helpless, and far away. This is something we can do, together.
EdAdvocate creates innovative global pilot initiatives for underserved and maligned youth, allowing vulnerable populations to thrive. The inspiration for EdAdvocate began when its founder, a 13 year classroom teacher whose passion for teaching and learning was reinvigorated with the implementation of authentic education in her classroom. Budget strapped, frustrated with the monotonous classroom testing curriculum and lack of opportunities for her students, this teacher reached out to the community around her classroom. By partnering with professionals in her community, like museum curators, doctors, city planners, foreign service officers, engineers and architects, they worked to design real life learning experiences for maximum student engagement.* Her colleagues were inspired and wanted to do the same, but lacked the immense time required in the design of units as well as connections to community members, and EdAdvocate began.
In its inaugural initiative, EdAdvocate created a database of 50 community members and 25 classroom teachers to participate in curriculum experiences designed by EdAdvocate. The organization bridged the gap between the classroom and the community to great success: in participating classrooms, there was a large increase in student engagement, higher graduation numbers, increased test scores, lower gang involvement and higher collegiate applications. An EdAdvocate designed Urban Design Project found students examining rapid growth during the Industrial Revolution, discovering similar themes in their community, and working with local urban planners, the city council, and the city planning department to develop proposals. The winning project was actually built within the community. Another project based learning experience found students attending an Ai Weiwei exhibit on human rights at Alcatraz island, and later worked with local museums to coordinate a project on the evolution of United States foreign policy and the role of the presidency. The local museums dedicated entire floors to our student’s museum exhibition, and reinvigorated the dying non profit.
EdAdvocate now funds global pilot programs and is raising funds for its current initiative. In Senegal, there are 100,000 children trafficked into schools where they have a tradition of enrolling children, mainly boys between the ages of 4 to 15, into Quranic schools named Daaras. The classes are limited to a few hours of training in Arabic each day, and the rest of the day the boys are sent out to beg on the streets for food and money. This results in many of the children living at the Daaras and never enrolling in the national education system. There is no support for this population, and there are no government sponsored literacy programs for this population. The layers of complexity increase when these children enter adulthood as an illiterate population, as a result they suffer from high unemployment and high poverty, with few viable solutions given their lack of preparation for the workforce. Many are lost, floating citizens, as they were trafficked across borders to which they cannot return, in a home that will not claim them as residents. They are a vulnerable population in every aspect of their lives. In June, EdAdvocate will execute a pilot education initiative which will take a pilot classroom of trafficked children, and provide them with a full year literacy program supported with imported curriculum and technology. Data from this program will not only be made public, but will also be given to the Senegalese Department of Education, allowing for widespread change from the initiative.
We need support. We are unique in that we are nimble and effective, every dollar you donate goes to the classroom. This is an opportunity to fund innovative initiatives with trustworthy experts, with established local partners for real grassroots change to give children literacy, and hope. In such divisive times, filled with tragedy, we often feel helpless, and far away. This is something we can do, together.
Organizer
Eve Grenlie
Organizer
Salt Lake City, UT