COLLEGE OF SAINT ELIZABETH MONDAY, MAY 21, 2012 | 7:30AM – 1:30PM

UnitedWayNNJ.org/YouthEmpowermentAlliance

United WayYouth Empowerment Alliance

YEA CELEBRATION!JOIN THE CONVERSATION

VISIT UNITEDWAYNNJ.ORG

THANK YOU TIME TO SAY “YEA!”

6

Welcome to the United Way Youth Empowerment Alliance YEA Celebration!

Our participants have been hard at work the past seven months creating positive change in their schools….and today’s the day to celebrate!

WHO’S HERE?Black River Middle School, ChesterEisenhower Middle School, Roxbury TownshipFrelinghuysen Middle School, Morristown Harding Township Middle SchoolMadison Junior SchoolMendham TownshipMount Olive Middle SchoolOur Lady of Mercy Academy, Hanover TownshipPearl R. Miller School, KinnelonPequannock Valley Middle SchoolRidgedale Middle School, Florham ParkRockaway Valley SchoolUnity Charter, Morris Township

1

SAVE THE DATEOCTOBER 16, 2012Youth Summit Day, Find your Voice! For more information contact Liz Warner at 973.993.1160, x107 or email Liz.Warner@UnitedWayNNJ.org.

The YEA Celebration is made possible through United Way Youth Empowerment Alliance, the Morris County Department of Human Services, and Municipal Alliance Initiative of Morris County.

Funding provided by the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.

5 2

WHAT DID THE PROJECTS DO? WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY?

WE HAVE A FUN-FILLED DAY, WITH THE STUDENTS AT THE FOREFRONT!

TIME ACTIVITY PLACE

7:30am Arrive & Mingle ( Find your Youth Summit Day Balloon Group!)

Annunciation Center

8:15am Welcome Octagon

8:30am Student Presentations Octagon

10:50am Lunch Annunciation Center

11:20am Student Presentations Octagon

1:20pm Closing Octagon

PEQUANNOCK VALLEY MIDDLE SCHOOL: PROJECT PANTHERAs a community, Pequannock suffered a great deal due to flooding this school year. The students wanted to create a positive environment to offset the negative

circumstances and set out to increase school spirit and pride, improve student attitude, and create more school unity. Hear what they ended up doing, with ideas for a pep rally, school decorations and mural, and creating a welcoming video for incoming 6th graders.

RIDGEDALE MIDDLE SCHOOL: HAPPINESS/VALIDATION DAYMoved by the power of one person to inspire change and make someone’s life better, as captured in the film “Validation,” Ridgedale

students created a Happiness/Validation day once a month, focusing on a different group each time, including peers, faculty, community, and parents. Plans included leading advisories with other students about sincerity and what it means to selflessly offer to do good for others, raising money to donate to Project Smile, random locker decorations with messages of encouragement, and other “planned” random acts of kindness.

ROCKAWAY VALLEY SCHOOL: TOLERANCE AND RESPECT PROJECTS Each grade level (K-8) was assigned a school-wide monthly theme to create a video promoting positive character traits. The videos were uploaded to the RVS intranet at the end of each month by the Broadcast Club for all the classes to view. The 7th grade students were assigned the theme of Tolerance, and every student in the grade participated in creating the video.

UNITY CHARTER: YES MA’AM! YES SIR! With a vision to “bridge the gap,” the group saw an opportunity to improve multi-age relationships in its K thru 8 school. Yes Ma’am! Yes Sir! helped guide better relationships between the older and younger students by holding activities for all age groups twice a month.

4

WHAT DID THE PROJECTS DO?

3

MADISON JUNIOR SCHOOL: DODGERS UNITEDThe students’ vision is to bring the student body together as one. What they want to change are those things that divide the school: division by grades, cliques, language, etc. Among the events scheduled were Mix it Up Days, a buddy program for new students, “potty posts,” and setting up suggestion boxes at school.

MENDHAM TOWNSHIP: MTAALA PROJECTLearn how Mendham Township’s peer leaders raised awareness of the extreme poverty in the village of Uganda. In addition to raising awareness, the students sponsored and communicated with a student from Uganda. The whole school collected medical supplies for the village.

MOUNT OLIVE MIDDLE SCHOOL: 72 DEGREESSeventy two degrees describes a very comfortable climate. The group was part of a school climate committee that wanted the school to function in the most comfortable manner…hence, 72 degrees, which is their code for keeping it comfortable. The temperature 72 degrees became a symbol for a socially comfortable school. By visually reinforcing 72 degrees, the Mount Olive student group hopes to help its students realize that they should be able to feel comfortable in school at all times.

OUR LADY OF MERCY ACADEMY: OLMA HELPSExtending a helping hand, the group’s efforts supported the diocese and surrounding neighbors with a number of food and clothing drives and community outreach activities. These included a Thanksgiving food drive, the “Straight and Narrow” Christmas drive, and time spent at the Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Center in Morristown, where the students prepared and served lunch to those less fortunate.

PEARL R. MILLER MIDDLE SCHOOL: ACCEPTING AND RESPECTING – “UNCLICK CLIQUES”The goal of this project is to help break down the barriers of cliques by giving students the opportunity to get to know kids outside of their friendship circles. The hope is that students will realize they share similarities and that will prevent kids from excluding and judging others. The group ran team-building activities with mixed groups of students in 6th, 7th and 8th grades. The Peer Mentor Advisory Committee was busy overseeing four to five classrooms during these periods, and a peer mentor and a teacher were in each classroom to facilitate the activities.

Here’s what each school group chose as its focus. Project summaries listed alphabetically by school:

BLACK RIVER MIDDLE SCHOOL: INCLUSION PROJECTWatch how the students at Black River Middle School made sure that all students are included and feel connected to their peers. This project involved holding mix-it-up lunch days (once a month) so that students had an opportunity to meet others and also so that students who don’t have as many people to sit with are more included.

EISENHOWER MIDDLE SCHOOL: UNIFYING OUR SCHOOLThe project goal here was to increase unity between 7th and 8th graders, students and staff, and among teachers of differ-ent teams. The group wanted its school to participate in common activities that would increase and/or improve the relationships between individuals and groups and ultimately have “one voice.”

FRELINGHUYSEN MIDDLE SCHOOL: I GOT YOUR B.A.C.K.Building on last year’s program, the group continued plans to share the “I Got Your

B.A.C.K.” anti-bullying initiative with its students and other Morris County School District students. The students wrote and performed a skit about bullying for their entire student body, and also presented to students of the Normandy Park School. They also coordinated assemblies for students and parents about bullying, peer counseling and a public service announcement campaign.

HARDING TOWNSHIP SCHOOL: GOSSIP BE GONEStudents explored the detrimental manifestations

of gossip at school. Using what they have been working on in Harding Township’s Ambassadors of Kindness program, students applied the three major goals they established regarding gossip: recognition, reduction, and elimination.