Onward and Upward, Vogue
In this stunning photo essay, take a look at the women who power NASA and learn about how far they’ve come since the time period depicted in “Hidden Figures.” With job titles ranging from research biologist to mission integration manager, the significance of their hard-found positions within the aeronautics industry is not lost on them. It won’t be on you, either.
In Response to Rising Biased Rhetoric, Muslims Run for Office, NPR
With hate crimes on the rise, some members of the American Muslim community are confronting the problem in a bold way: by running for office. Campaigning inevitably puts them in the spotlight and often brings about further vitriol, but many see it as the only way to move the conversation forward.
Surgeons Were Told to Stop Prescribing So Many Painkillers. The Results Were Remarkable. The Washington Post
The opioid epidemic in the U.S. has killed tens of thousands during the last decade, and the overprescription of drugs is largely to blame. A small trial in New Hampshire uncovered a simple, data-driven solution that could lead to a huge cutback in prescriptions and ultimately, addictions.
Tag: New Hampshire
Meet the Group That Helps Kids Turn the Page Toward a Better Future
By reading his words, Dr. Seuss taught us about all of the places we will go. Opening a book and falling into the pages transports you to a new land with new adventures — whether it is eating green eggs and ham or meeting the Cat in the Hat.
But for some kids, reading is much more than just a trip down imagination lane; it is the pathway to a more successful life. And that’s the mission of the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF): to show kids in low-income communities the opportunities that reading can provide them.
Since 1998, CLiF has been serving low-income, at-risk and rural children in Vermont and New Hampshire. Through partnerships with schools, libraries, shelters and other organizations, the group works to inspire the love of writing and reading in children ranging from birth to age 12.
So how do they encourage passion for the written word? The Foundation hosts events throughout various communities featuring a published author who gives an inspirational presentation on his or her life, tell stories and conduct a writing workshop with the kids.
Further, CLiF donates books to schools, libraries and kids themselves, as well as works with the community to create a more literary-friendly environment.
It all began 16 years ago when Duncan McDougall founded the organization with one staff member (himself) and one program. Now, CLiF boasts a staff of five as well as 50 professional presenters.
Over the years, they’ve given away $3 million worth of books, and worked with more than 160,000 kids across 400 communities.
They’ve also added a new program that allows CLiF to interact with kids throughout the entire year. Children have the opportunity to participate in at least 12 activities and get their own personal collection of new books.
And just because school is out during the summer, that doesn’t mean that the CLiF stops working. CLiF also coordinates its Summer Readers Program, reaching 3,700 kids in over 50 summer camps, childcare centers, libraries and recreation programs in low-income areas.
Why the focus on children from low-income areas? Because, perhaps not surprisingly, they’re the ones most at risk for low literacy rates. CLiF chooses communities that contain a high number of kids on the free or reduced lunch program or have a high number of below proficient scores in reading and writing on standardized tests.
The kids that live in these areas are often the children of inmates, recent refugees, or simply don’t have access to enrichment activities because they live in rural areas.
For kids of prison inmates, this program gives both parent and child a chance for a better life. CLiF offers a program where inmates (70 percent of them have poor literacy) can record themselves reading a book and then send that recording to their children.
For one inmate in New Hampshire, CLiF seminars changed the way he viewed reading.
“I am not able to be there and actually read them books,” he told CLiF. “Since I started attending [the CLiF seminars] we have started storytelling at night on the phone. Either I will tell one or they may but there is always a story.”
While some may consider this to be mission impossible, CLiF isn’t going giving up. After all, for some kids, counting one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish is the key to success.
DON’T MISS: Ask the Experts: How Can We Fix Early Childhood Education?
The Camp That Offers Battlefield Warriors a New Way to Heal
As we’ve said before, for most veterans, jumping back into life at home is no easy task. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and distance from their former comrades-in-arms can hinder the transition back to day-to-day life. But Warrior Camp is looking to change that by adding a twist to the typical PTSD treatment.
This one-week program runs a few times throughout the year, providing support and treatment for military members and veterans who are living with PTSD. New York resident Eva J. Usadi founded the camp.
Most PTSD treatment centers focus on talk therapy and medication, sometimes putting a veteran on as many as 18 or 20 different drugs. Despite this, the statistics do not reveal positive results. Every day, one active military member commits suicide, but it is far worse among veterans, which average 22 suicides per day.
That’s why Usadi uses a different approach. Her strategy focuses on three main components: equine assisted psychotherapy, yoga and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy. The results are staggering: 68 percent of those coming to the camp with PTSD no longer meet those requirements at the end of the week.
For Jennifer Pacanowski, Warrior Camp provided her with an alternative way to confront her PTSD: Through writing poetry.
“The thing is you can’t talk your nervous system out of being traumatized,” says Pacanowski. “To support your veterans you have to listen to them. You have to listen to their stories. That’s the ritual of coming home.”
Usadi and her veteran alumni, though, credit a fourth component, community, for the camp’s success.
“They train together. They live together and they go to war together in very tightly knit units and some of the people have said we have created that feeling again that nobody has had since they had been discharged,” Usadi told Union Leader.
And it’s that community feeling that continues to drive the camp forward.
On July 19, a gala was held in support of Warrior Camp at Shattuck Golf Club in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. The event was planned and hosted by Thomas C. Harvey, a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army. Retired Sgt. First Class Harvey decided to have the event to raise awareness about PTSD after being asked to volunteer at Warrior Camp last year.
For his efforts, Harvey was named honorary alum of the camp. But he isn’t done yet as he plans to make the gala a yearly occurrence, especially considering that the event raised $10,000.
While PTSD remains a troubling occurrence, Warrior Camp is proving that no problem is too big too tackle if you have the support and help of community and friends.
DON’T MISS: This Veteran is Building Better Futures for Other Service Members
Bringing Bhutanese Village Life to Refugees in New Hampshire
Getting down and dirty in the garden offers a multitude of health benefits.
And now, a community garden in Concord, New Hampshire is helping Bhutanese refugees with homesickness by recreating the village atmosphere they miss.
Ghana Khatiwada, a translator fluent in Nepali and English who works as a cultural liasion for the garden, told Megan Doyle of the Concord Monitor, “To them, it’s like a home feeling to come here and work in a garden,” she said.
The Sycamore Field Community Garden charges only $15 for a plot each season, so even the most impoverished refugees can participate. Organizers give away free seedlings to the immigrants.
While all this sounds great, it isn’t problem free. Each year, there’s a giant waiting list for the 138 garden plots available; this season, 70 families entered a lottery for the four open slots.
The lucky winners of plots emerge from the growing season well-fed, with extra cash in their pockets. “We are saving a lot of money,” gardener Ghana Khatiwada told Doyle. “In the winter, we spent a lot of money on vegetables like tomatoes, okra, eggplants.”
Ideally, garden manager Cheryl Bourassa would expand the garden, but she’s limited due to the amount of available water. To increase the number of plots, the nonprofit, which relies on grants and donations for its funding, would have to dig a new well — at a cost of $15,000. So recently, they filmed a video of the bustling activity in the garden to feature on Faithify, a crowdfunding website that will launch next month. Lea Smith, who shot the video, told Doyle, “Maybe somebody in Idaho will be inspired to help refugee farmers in Concord, New Hampshire.”
It’s clear that the atmosphere in The Sycamore Field Community Gardens is worth sustaining. Bourassa told Doyle that in the summer when the plants are burgeoning and the gardeners are there to tend them, “It’s almost like a little social club. It’s this real sense of life in a village.”
MORE: In Vermont, These Adorable Animals Give Some New Americans The Taste of Home
How One Organization Encourages the Love of Reading
Clifford. Harry Potter. The Boxcar Children. These storybook characters have entertained and inspired countless American children. And now, they can do the same for a whole group of immigrant kids.
Some new book worms at the Integrated Arts Academy, a school that serves many English-language-learning students whose parents emigrated from countries such as Somalia, Nepal, and South Sudan, in Burlington, Vermont, took home free reading material this week, thanks to the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLF). This nonprofit aims to inspire a love of reading in low-income and rural children in New Hampshire and Vermont. According to CLF’s website, it has served 150,000 children since 1998 — donating more than $3 million worth of books. Donations from the community make it possible for the kids to start their own home libraries.
This year, Duncan McDougall of CLF gave the families a literacy seminar before the kids each picked out two free books at the book fair. McDougall spoke to the parents about how they can support their children’s reading habits, offering them techniques to engage the kids in the story, even if the parents themselves can’t read English well. Five translators were on hand to help the families select good books for their kids.
McDougall told Lynn Monty of the Burlington Free Press, “These children are all very eager to learn and to read more often, but many of them have few, if any, books of their own at home. Their parents often work multiple jobs which makes it hard to take children to the library, and many of the parents themselves have limited literacy skills.”
“We are newcomers who want to help our kids at home,” Mon Gurung, who moved to the U.S. from Nepal, told Monty.
MORE: Can a Book Make You a Better Person?
Community Building Through…Baking?
How can you simultaneously teach students about math, science, reading and community service? By baking bread. Through the King Arthur Flour company’s Bread Baking Program, New Hampshire students learn bread baking techniques in school. Then they go home to bake two loaves of bread with their families, and bring one back to give to Rockingham Community Action. The entire student body of Lincoln Akerman School participates in the program: K-3 students create labels for the bread, 4th-7th grade students bake the bread, and 8th grade students bring soup to be served with the bread. Students learn about the process of baking bread, and use math and reading skills to measure ingredients and follow recipes, while giving back to the community in the process.
This 11-Year-Old Does More to Help Animals Before School Than Most of Us Do in a Lifetime
When Declan Gregg was 9, he learned that American horses, both domestic and wild, are routinely slaughtered, and he wanted to do something about it. In 2011 he started a blog called Children For Horses and a Facebook page. On his blog he shares horse news, artwork and information about how kids can help. Gregg, now 11, organized a letter writing party at the New Hampshire SPCA for children to contact their elected officials in support of the humane treatment of horses. He’s met with congressmen and testified before the New Hampshire state house. He’s spoken to Girl Scout Troops, 4-H Clubs, and afterschool programs, and he’s spurred fundraisers for charities that help horses. For his tireless efforts, the ASPCA awarded him the Humane Kid of the Year Award in 2012, and since horses can’t speak for themselves, Gregg doesn’t have any plans to stop speaking up for them.