Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Last Call to be featured in the UCR Black Alumni June Newsletter
Alumni , Faculty/Staff and students last call to be featured in the June newsletter saluting the 2009 Graduates and Entrepreneurs. email ucrblackalumni (at) gmail (dot) com
Friday, May 8, 2009
Desserts for Distinction Drive
The UCR Black Alumni Association would like to announce our first Desserts for Distinction Drive and we want the 2009 to celebrate the taste of accomplishment. Success is Sweet!
We are asking that each alumni, organizations & parents attending the UCR Black Graduation Ceremony to sponsor one sealed dessert to donate to the reception.
please respond by May 22nd or send an email to ucrblackalumni@gmail.com
Countdown to the UCR Black Graduation Ceremony.
The UCR Black Alumni Association is proud to announce we are hosting the post ceremony reception. Volunteers and Donations are needed please email ucrblackalumni@gmail.com
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=93039736512&mid=59b7efG657b03e5G2452G30
Please join us as we recognize the 2009 Graduating Alumni of UC Riverside and celebrate the next generation of leaders!
The Black Graduation Committee needs your Alumni Support!!!
As the budgets have been greatly reduced at all universities , the graduation committee has worked diligently to fund raise for the event and now needs your help to send off our graduates with a bang.
On behalf of the UCR Black Alumni Association we request the following in-kind donations and volunteers for the reception.The expected turn out is between 600-800 people.
Volunteers:
Ushers to hand out programs and assist with seating
Runners
Catering
Beverages
Ice
(Desserts)
Plates, Utensils,Napkins
Table Cloths
Balloons
If you are able to assist with any of the volunteer staffing or in-kind donations please email ucrblackalumni (at) gmail.com
2009 UCR Black Graduation Ceremony
http://www.facebook.com/n/?
| Host: | UCR Black Graduation Committee |
| Type: | |
| Network: | Global |
| Date: | Sunday, June 7, 2009 |
| Time: | 2:00pm - 5:00pm |
| Location: | UC Riverside Recreation Center |
| Phone: | 9518274576 |
| Email: |
Please join us as we recognize the 2009 Graduating Alumni of UC Riverside and celebrate the next generation of leaders!
The Black Graduation Committee needs your Alumni Support!!!
As the budgets have been greatly reduced at all universities , the graduation committee has worked diligently to fund raise for the event and now needs your help to send off our graduates with a bang.
On behalf of the UCR Black Alumni Association we request the following in-kind donations and volunteers for the reception.The expected turn out is between 600-800 people.
Volunteers:
Ushers to hand out programs and assist with seating
Runners
Catering
Beverages
Ice
(Desserts)
Plates, Utensils,Napkins
Table Cloths
Balloons
If you are able to assist with any of the volunteer staffing or in-kind donations please email ucrblackalumni (at) gmail.com
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
City of Riverside 9th Annual Juneteenth
City of Riverside 9th Annual Juneteenth June 6, 12-6pm Bordwell Park, 2008 Martin Luther King Riverside. For more information 877-752-1619
Basketball Success Builds Good Citizens
Case study of Philadelphia program by UCR researcher Scott Brooks offers insights into creating successful youth development programs.
(May 6, 2009)
NEWS MEDIA CONTACT
Name: Bettye MillerTel: (951) 827-7847
E-mail: bettye.miller@ucr.edu
In a study that appears today in Policy Matters, a quarterly journal published by UC Riverside, Scott Brooks, assistant professor of sociology at UCR, concludes that when cities invest in youth development programs, those programs “can have a positive effect on the lives of children and adults, and can help spur and shape its future growth and identity.”
The article is available at http://policymatters.ucr.edu.
Sports are the centerpiece of federal, state and local efforts in poor, inner-city poor communities to mitigate school truancy and dropouts, juvenile violence, delinquency, and gang participation. Sports participation is a socializing institution, and involvement leads to greater self-esteem, school engagement, and higher educational aspirations, Brooks says.
The success of sport-based social interventions depends on the strength of nonsport components, Brooks says, such as: the development and use of local resources to nurture cultural and social niches, the creation of synergies and status associated with the activity, and the engagement of residents from different generations.
“Customized youth development programs can indeed have noticeable impacts if they involve more than simply the primary activity,” he says.
Brooks coached youth basketball in Philadelphia for nearly a decade and has been an assistant basketball coach at a public high school in Riverside for two years. His report, “Making Basketball Work: Ensuring Success in Youth Development Programs,” is a case study of youth basketball in Philadelphia, where the sport is played from cradle to grave, and is taken seriously and played rigorously at all skill levels and arenas of competition.
“Philadelphia is a basketball city because of its storied past, its multiple and interconnected levels of basketball, and its socioeconomic structure and networks,” Brooks writes. “And these factors work together to create a local basketball world and culture, and influence how some people use the city’s resources and carve a social identity as basketball players.”
Programs like Midnight Basketball are an important part of legislative crime packages at the state and local level, he says. “The premise is that sport, and basketball in particular, helps to integrate youth, particularly young black males, in positive ways. This is problematic and misses the larger structural issues and conditions facing the inner-city poor.”
Most programs simply roll out balls and let kids play, he says. However, research shows that activities and organizations that influence behavior, identities and lives need some central components of institutionalization to be successful.
Brooks cites as an example a Philadelphia league that has the goal of making youths successful basketball players, on and off the court. Games are structured, recorded and regulated like college and professional basketball, and typically draw audiences of peers, community residents, and high school and college basketball coaches.
The league takes pride in helping young men to have more opportunities for success and to become good citizens, Brooks says. “Men in the league are seen as role models, and they often act as father figures.” Those men enforce broader social conventions regarding decorum and respect for authority and teamwork, and help combat the notion of black men as absent fathers and father figures, he says.
Although other cities may not share similar histories of cradle-to-grave basketball leagues that grow collegiate or NBA champions, every community has some sporting or other activity that can involve residents at different levels and in varied roles to build successful youth development programs, Brooks says.
The Philadelphia experience can be useful in modeling best practices for such programs, he says, such as:
- Resource and capital assessment. Determine what the community does well or could do well, and adopt a multifaceted approach that embraces girls and boys in sports and nonsports activities.
- Promote programs and participants, both locally and nationally. Such programs could increase tourism and employment, as well as attract new, productive citizens.
- Create and take advantage of synergies between cities and programs whenever possible. Visibility increases interest in an organization or institution. The need for job training to support youth development programs can help spur the development of courses and programs in local colleges and high schools.
- Support the right programs with resources. Successful programs must be rewarded. Be sure to address the needs of girls and women, who tend to participate in sports at lower rates. Programs that encourage their participation are necessary for women’s health, fitness, and social integration and empowerment.
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