A celebration of students’ accomplishments at a morning full of demonstrations, presentations, competitions and awards:

LIVE Presentations by young physicists!
Incredible, Amazing Robots that will save the world!
Kids Engineering Web 3.0?!?!
1st through 8th Grade Students will astound and entertain you!

Some snacks will be provided. Bring a bag lunch if you plan on staying all morning.

TechStart Expo 2011
Saturday, June 18
11:00am - 1:00pm

Southwest Boys and Girls Club
9800 8th Ave. SW, Suite 105
Seattle, WA 98106

The White Center CDA expresses our heartfelt thank you to all of our 630+ Spring Clean volunteers! It was a great event; heavily attended by youth of all ages, our elders, our many different immigrant communities, our longtime residents, and our community partners/sponsors to keep White Center a cleaner, safer, healthier place to live.

Mural project on 16th and 98th.

A before and after photo at the White Center Heights Elementary project. Photos by Adrian Hedwig.

Also visit White Center Now for their rundown and gallery of photos and the West Seattle Herald/White Center News for the same. We’ll have official event photos, courtesy of Youth Media Institute, in our photo gallery soon.

We’ll see you at next year’s White Center Spring Clean - Saturday, May 19, 2012!

What are your priorities for school? What programs do you want for next year?

Share your opinions and ideas about education in Highline.

Parents, students, families, and community members are invited to participate in a Highline Public School Budget Community Meeting.
Participate in an interactive e-polling activity and discussion about education in your school.

Meeting Information:

When: Thursday, May 19, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Location: Cedarhurst Elementary School
Address: 611 South 132nd Street
Burien, WA 98168

Hope to see you there. Come and share your voice and improve education in Highline.

For more information:
http://www.hsd401.org/ehighlights/2011/05/04/PublicWorkshopsToDiscussBudgetCuts.aspx

Courtesy of the Seattle-Pi.com: Health Sciences & Human Services High School (at Evergreen HS) student Meseret “Missy” Alemu is profiled with her family in an article about going to college. Read the article here. Photo by Joshua Trujillo for Seattle-Pi.com.

Last week we promoted the Cultivate Open Mic event, which featured the Trackademics program, embodied by many youth performers, some who just happen to represent White Center. Here are some photos of the event by Ramzey Staples. You can check out the rest of the photos on Facebook!

From our partners at the Trackademics program, operating out of Mt. View Presbyterian Church in White Center:

The 1st Session of The Trackademics Project recently completed their song, “Seattle Livin” which speaks to growing up in Seattle (mostly SW Seattle- High Point, White Center, South Park, Boulevard Park) and what it means to them. On Friday, February 25th, they performed their song in front of a 150+ at Cultivate’s Open Mic. We recently put together some of the footage of the 1st Session’s hard work, performances and interviews to create a music video of sorts.

THIS FRIDAY (4/29) at 8pm, The Trackademics Project SESSION 2 will be debuting their song at CULTIVATE’S OPEN MIC at Harambee in Renton. We want to make sure this group has just as much support for all of their hard work these past 2 months! This event is FREE and open to ALL AGES. Please forward this along to your youth, families, and groups that would be interested in checking out the Cultivate Open Mic as well as supporting the great work that SESSION 2 of The Trackademics Project has put together! Here is the facebook link to the invite for the Cultivate Open Mic: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=207411315944817

If you have any students or young people in the SW Seattle area that you think would be interested in The Trackademics Project, have them email me us at thetrackademicsproject@gmail.com as soon as possible.

Courtesy of KING5 News:

TONYA MOSLEY / KING 5 News

WHITE CENTER, Wash. - The lunch hour is over and Evergreen High School custodian Tyrone Curry gets out his broom for a quick sweep up.

“I try to make sure it’s spotless and it’s ready for the kids,” he said.

After cleaning, he’s off to his second passion: coaching the track and field team.

“I just like staying busy,” Curry said with a
laugh.

But in reality, he doesn’t have to work. He’s a millionaire.

“I know my wife says, ‘Oh, you don’t really have to work’ and I say, ‘Yeah. I do.”

Five years ago, Curry won nearly $3.4 million in the state lottery. Even before his numbers were drawn, the coach knew where he wanted to spend it.

“Ten years ago, I said if I win some money, I’m going to put a track here.”

In early April, coach Curry presented the district with $40,000 to go towards a brand new track.

“Tyrone goes above and beyond in the sports he coaches,” said senior Devante Botello. “It’s a deep feeling. All I can say is thanks.”

Curry said the gift he has given Evergreen pales in comparison to what the kids have given him.

“Kids do things for you. They keep you young,” Curry said.

In June, after 34 years, Curry will retire. But, he’ll be back to see that brand new track and cheer on the team.

“It’s gonna be hard when I retire, you know, but I’ll still be here.”

Curry plans to run for the school board after retirement.

His donation will be matched with a $75,000 youth sports grant.

The CDA Community Building department trained youth from The Service Board (TSB), Cascade Middle School and Evergreen High School on how to facilitate a storytelling workshop. In this 2010 photo, Elvis from Cascade Middle School and Mohammed from Evergreen High School present the workshop in front of 50 students from White Center. The workshop was in partnership with TSB and Community Schools Collaboration.

Last but not least, here’s our report for our Community Building work at the White Center CDA. You can read the complete report, which includes our Mission and Vision statement, and more, on our Reports page!

Community Building: The White Center CDA is the vehicle for merging the family and neighborhood strategies to ensure they are resident driven and accountable.  The intersection of these efforts will provide a hub for residents to be engaged and step up to leadership roles promoting family and neighborhood initiatives.

In 2011, our work includes our signature event, the Community Summit, bringing together 400+ partners, residents and businesses to access resources, celebrate community, review the Community Report Card and to understand the eight strategies of the Neighborhood Action Plan to see where their vision comes to reality and how they can be involved. Specific targeted outreach is also set to occur related to White Center Promise, alternative modes of transportation and voter registration. Lastly our Resident Leadership Pathway provides free advocacy and skills training for residents and is one benefit of becoming a Member of the CDA.

2010 Successes:

Increased the community building capacity of 17 non profits with Project Empower and Non-profit Assistance Center (NAC)

Launched membership program and recruited the first 120 members of the White Center CDA.

Completed the first annual update to the inaugural 2009 Neighborhood Plan by reaching out to 50+ partners and the 100+ action items they took the lead on.

Trained five resident fellows to support priorities of the community and gain work experience at the CDA.

Supported Family Development and Neighborhood Revitalization advocacy efforts related to School equity policies, food and fitness, and housing/homelessness.

Photo: Family Connections Learning through Cooking Event at White Center Heights Elementary, March 2011.

We are proud to share with you the accomplishments from last year and give a preview of our 2011 work. First up is Family Development. We will report out on our Neighborhood Revitalization and Community Building work soon!

Family Development: Our “People” based two -generation work (parent and child)

Our Goal:  Families are economically stable, connected, and access culturally competent and effective services.

In 2011, our work includes our Family Connections program- a social network that advances literacy, health and economic opportunities for multi-lingual families at our three elementary schools through data-driven assessments, targeted referrals and resident leadership. Our Mount View Healthy Learners is a comprehensive, evidenced based effort to implement a set of targeted strategies for the purpose of improving third grade reading abilities for the students at highest academic risk. And we are embarking upon a “cradle through college to career” education reform plan called the White Center Promise Neighborhoods to help families achieve educational success in a targeted geographic zone in White Center. Lastly, our Family Economic Success workgroup promotes best practices and partnership for job seekers and family advancement, this year especially focused on pre-apprenticeships, construction trades and the Got Green program.

2010 Successes:

Family Connections served 117 families (514 individuals, 96% people of color, 77% spoke languages other than English at home) and increased early learning involvement, reading at home, attendance and academic data as a result of our program.

Mount View Healthy Learners helped 81 students with direct reading interventions and over 500 students received comprehensive academic and development assessments. For this school year, 70% of all third graders tested at benchmark for reading proficiency (up from 58% the previous year) and 100% of students were assessed for academic and developmental concerns.

With our core partners, SW Youth and Family Services, Highline Public Schools and many others, CDA raised funds to complete the Promise Neighborhoods business plan with funding from local private foundations and corporations.

Got Green successfully trained 15 low income, young adults of color in weatherization installation, with 10 gaining employment. Over 600 residents and 70 volunteers were educated on the green economy.

Through partnerships with Airport Jobs, Basic Food Employment Training and others, 1,090 residents were placed in jobs of which 47% included health benefits.

Basic Food Employment Training/DSHS: Advocated for $19.25m of new funding to strengthen the neighborhood jobs pipeline, serving 17,000 individuals including 2,700 residents in White Center.

This just sent in to us from Emily Slagle, branch executive director at the SW Boys & Girls Club at Greenbridge:

I am proud to report that the Southwest Boys & Girls Club has won a 2011 Over-All Program award from the Boys & Girls Clubs of America for having the BEST DROP-IN PROGRAM in the NATION! We are one of 4,000 Clubs in the Nation and WE WON!!!  What an honor it is for us to be recognized for the work we do with the youth in the White Center community!  We hope you are just as proud of our accomplishments and will join us at our Annual Celebration of Champions Fundraising Breakfast on Thursday, May 12th at the Club from 7:15am-8:30am.

Thank you to all of our donors, we couldn’t have done with without your support!  You are a part of something even greater!  BEST in the NATION!!!

In FEBRUARY we served 231 youth and 118 teens in our program for a total of 349 served!

Avergage Daily Attendance = 128 members!

Peak Attendance Day = Friday, February 11 with 222 members in the Club!

• 1112 meals served
• 37 youth participated in K-1st grade Power Hour Homework Help
• 104 youth in 2nd-4th Power Hour Homework Help
• 101 youth/teens in 5th-12th Power Hour Homework Help