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GIRAFFE OF THE MONTH
People in troubled neighborhoods often complain that those who move up and out don't look back, don't extend a hand to those they've left behind. Myrah Green had taken her arts degree into a promising career in Manhattan's fashion world. Richard Green earned advanced degrees in anthropology and secondary education. But they decided that no work was more important than giving everything they knew to the people of his old neighborhood. They started the Crown Heights Youth Collective in Brooklyn, where they offer kids an astonishing array of top-drawer programs: job skills, chess, peacemaking, tap dancing, entrepreneurship, horticulture, math-even "urban navigation" (how to use New York's complex subway system). More than 1,600 young people go through the Collective's programs each year; an impressive 60% of graduates get jobs or enter college.
The Green's work made its biggest impression on a watching world in 1991 when Crown Heights astonished observers by not destroying itself. An Hasidic motorist had accidentally killed an African-American child; in response, a rabbinical student was murdered as ethnic tensions sent hundreds of angry people into the streets. And then they went home. They had listened to Richard Green and the many young peacemakers the Greens had trained, and they'd backed off. In the years since, Collective peacemakers have named frequent trouble spots "peace zones," where teams from the Collective regularly defuse potential explosions. The Greens involve Hasids and Asians from the community in the Collective's programs; after seeing its peacemakers at work, they know they are welcome.
Myrah and Richard Green are in Crown Heights for the long haul, knowing no work could be more important. "These streets are the first line and the last line," he'll tell you. "We can hold it right here or we can lose it right here."
We asked the folks at the Giraffe Project to let us share some of the wonderful stories of personal transformation and public service here at New Horizons for Learning. The people at the Giraffe Project believe in being "free flacks for heroes -- finding, commending and publicizing people who stick their necks out for the common good." Their mission is to get others to look up, notice, and appreciate the quiet leaders in our communities.
Visit the Giraffe website to learn about The Giraffe Program, a K-12 curriculum that teaches kids about real heroes and gets them going on lives of courage, caring and responsibility, and the Giraffe Partners Trunk--everything a business or club needs to help a classroom full of kids to stand tall.
Copyright © 1999 The Giraffe Project, all rights reserved.Posted with permission by New Horizons for Learning
http://www.newhorizons.org
E-mail: info@newhorizons.org