by butch | Jun 10, 2021 | Blog, Kids N Media
Dear Community,
Not much has changed since the last time we checked in. In our last update we shared our plan to restart classes in the next school year. The goal is to begin the first week of school. Our focus for this school year was to identify a new group of students with an interest in media. We have 4 students and plan to add 2-3 more before classes start.
We have decided to have students record smaller portions instead of a short documentary. This will allow them to record, edit and view a finished product in a shorter time frame. We believe this will help keep them engaged and increase the sustainability of the project. This will also help us avoid having an unfinished project due to instability some of the students face.
We still have funds remaining to purchase a Canon camera, a group subscription to AOC and Adobe subscription. These items will be purchased in the fall. Although we had to delay our project, we know it was the right choice. We are still excited to have the class done right. We look forward to sharing an update once classes begin.
Sincerely,
Raquel Henry
Kids N Media Team Leader
by butch | Jun 10, 2021 | Blog, Greening Festival
Dear Community,
Did you enjoy this year’s Virtual Festival? What about a Festival favorite drink or menu item on a patio or from the comfort of your home? As you know, our project meant to eliminate the use of styrofoam at Festival International de Louisiane and inspire interest in zero waste events, was stunted due to Covid-19 and the shift to a virtual Festival in both 2020 and 2021.
Our “Plan B” to pivot for this year and incorporate plant-based to-go containers into Feastival locations did not end up taking place. We know we’ll be able to make a bigger impact both for Festival International and the community by sticking to the original plan for one big push towards a foam-free Festival accompanied by a switch to compostable containers. So, we still have all of our funds earmarked from 2020 and they are ready to be utilized for the next live event — mark your calendars now for Festival International 2022, April 27 – May 1st!
As previously planned, we will work with Festival International staff and their vendors this coming fall and winter to help educate and subsidize the switch to compostable to-go containers. In the meantime, check out our fiscal sponsors No Waste Lafayette. They hosted Lafayette’s first “Zero Waste Week” in May and have many tips and resources to help people reduce waste every day!
Yours in Green,
The Greening Festival Team
by butch | Jun 10, 2021 | Blog, Saturday School
Dear Community,
Through your generosity and support, we were able to complete GOT IT (Saturday School) successfully. GOT IT (Saturday School) was able to support numerous seniors and graduating juniors through multiple effective educational programs. First, GOT IT provided food and instruction to twenty-five seniors as they earned their required CPR credit for graduation. GOT IT then provided three Saturdays of instruction and food to students in grades 9-12 with emphasis on students in grades eleventh and twelfth. Due to the additional academic support, GOT IT provided to graduating juniors and seniors, Northside High School graduated 135 students on Friday, May 18, 2021. We hope to extend educational services as well as develop other educational programs in the 2021-2022 school year due to the success of the academic programs in the 2020-2021 school year.
During the 2020-2021 school year, $940.97 was spent on funding academic programs, which still gives us over $2,100.00 to spend on the educational programs for the 2021-2022 school year. Our goal is to continue providing students with academic support to ensure they have the skills necessary to: obtain basic or above on the end-of-course assessment, pass each core class with a 70% or better, and graduate from high school on time. GOT IT will work on planning for the upcoming school year once we have identified the academic needs of the students in grades 11th and 12th. Again, thank you for your support as we continue to develop a community that is educational resourceful, supportive, and strong for all.
Thanks,
Brandi Clay
(Team Lead)
by butch | Jun 10, 2021 | Adopt-a-Storm Drain, Blog
We’ll be in touch soon.
Thanks,
Katy Dupre
Adopt A Storm Drain Team Leader
by butch | Feb 4, 2021 | Blog, Veggie on the Go
Dear Community,
It has been a rough year for many of us, but we made it through. Some of our team members left the group due to other pressing priorities and a few of us had COVID-19 at the end of the year. You may recall, our project decided to pivot away from the veggie “mobility” via the bike due to Covid concerns, and decided to continue providing an outlet for healthy produce during weekend food markets. Despite the difficulties, we were able to host markets most of the year twice a month. We were not able to host any markets in December or January because of COVID concerns, but we are resuming the markets on 02/13-14/2021 and will continue on the 2nd Saturday or Sunday and 3rd Saturday at the MCV Community House 419 12th St. Because of some of the concerns with COVID we have decided to host most of the markets at the community house with an open air atmosphere and at different locations in the community weather permitting.
We were able to pay it forward with 15 veggie bags, feed our neighbors locally and in Vinton, LA. It’s our hope to continue this journey to provide fresh produce to our community and to one day resuming going out with the veggie bike reaching more of the community. We would like to thank the community for supporting this adventure and we look forward to seeing everyone in 2021.
Thanks,
Trincella Bonnet
Veggie on the Go Team Leader
by butch | Feb 4, 2021 | Adopt-a-Storm Drain, Blog
Dear Community,
We pressed ‘pause’, took a step back and evaluated our approaches and processes. We weren’t making timely progress and we were determined to understand why. We recognized significant scope creep which deviated from our original proposal. As a result of these honest evaluations, we were able to re-center ourselves and our project around its original value proposition — open source projects can and should be completed within a limited time frame, for free.
We leveraged Lafayette’s technology talent base by connecting with them via Slack (a short form communication platform similar to AOL Instant Messenger, but WAY cooler and more robust). After joining the Acadiana Software Group’s Slack team, we were able to directly connect with tech talent interested in open source community projects, like ours. Interested participants have been able to replicate the original code for “Adopt A” GitHub page. The platform is 80% developed and will be ready for public testing by the end of the first quarter in 2021. If you want to help us with testing the functionality of the platform, like us on Facebook. We’ll be updating our followers on that social media platform.
A major barrier throughout 2020 was obtaining access to data from LCG. We were unable to obtain a full dataset of storm drain locations (due to undefined security concerns from LCG), but we were able to get our hands on location data for two distinct pilot zone areas. Those areas can be viewed on this google map (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1PY-A3iJqsjyTcXI3bKiAkULxXRjCIOfh&usp=sharing). We hope that, in time, a full dataset will be shared with our team. If other places are able and willing to share this public information, then we believe it can, and should, be publicly available and accessible in Lafayette, LA.
Our 24HCP funding is dedicated to marketing and communications. As such, we’re partnering with University of Louisiana at Lafayette Sales and Marketing students on an Experiential Learning class project where students will develop and execute a marketing plan. They’ll also be responsible for providing a performance evaluation report on how their plan succeeded or failed. Metrics of success will include a 75% adoption rate within the two pilot zone areas, increased social media engagement, and increased public awareness and demand for open data projects across Lafayette.
Thanks,
Katy Dupre
Adopt A Storm Drain Team Leader
