Rosa Parks Children and Youth Program
Hello,
My director at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen forwarded me the posting about Sandman Donates. I was so impressed by Andy’s choice to repurchase the tickets and give them to a nonprofit serving kids. But I wanted to write and inform you about our program here at the Capuchin Soup kitchen. As you may know the Capuchins have been providing hot food and many others services (clothing, furniture, etc.) for over 60 years. But from that services many other needs arose that the Capuchins addressed. One of those needs was quality after-school and summer programming for children to attend daily. Thus Rosa Parks Children Program was born. The Rosa Parks youth program operates out of The Capuchin Soup Kitchen Conner location Mon-Friday. I am the proud coordinator of that program and have been for the past 5 years. We provide daily, tutoring, art therapy, gardening, teen support groups, and several summer camps. Our program services 60+ kids (ages 6-16) daily and have been doing so for over 17 years.
Many of our kids come from very impoverished families so I highly doubt any of our kids have attended an Detroit Lions football game. But I know they do support the Lions as we had many debates about the team’s performance before program activities. Also to be honest many of our families have transportation issues. We recently started to provide transportation services for kids to make sure they get home safely during the winter months. So if were given tickets the adult maybe a staff member to ensure the child gets to the games safely. But I would like to nominate our program as it a phenomenal place for children and adults. I attached some pictures and a link below to a film the children made this past summer.
At our annual summer peace camp we started to teach the kids how to use IPad’s to create, film, and edit short movies. So this year we challenged the kids to use those skills learned from past camps and apply them to address the City’s violence. Also by this being the anniversary of the 1967 Detroit Riots we took the older children to see the Exhibits at the DIA & Detroit Historical Museum. From all the trips to the museum and the kids own experience they created a really amazing project. Please take the time to view the 7 minute YouTube and feel free to share it wherever you see fit. Even if you choose to give the tickets to another organization please view the video is it really powerful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifzJ6mejsyQ
Thanks, Peace, & Blessing,
Davon Mann
Rosa Parks Youth Program Coordinator
Capuchin Services Center
