Unsung: The Voices of Youth Justice
In briefAI summary — tap to read
Kat Crawford presents the Unbound Read-a-Thon, a literacy initiative serving incarcerated youth across the United States, which encourages students in secure settings to read books and share their experiences through creative projects. The program demonstrates how exposure to reading and technology can inspire educational achievement and career prospects for youth with limited opportunities.
Key takeaways
- The Unbound Read-a-Thon has engaged students across 40-45 states to read over 500,000 books, with participants ranging from first-time readers to students completing multiple book series in a single month.
- Youth in secure settings often possess untapped potential in areas like coding and literacy when given exposure and opportunity, with some participants going on to major in coding in college after release.
- Community volunteers can support incarcerated youth through creative, identity-protecting activities like book selfies and Flipgrid video readings, creating meaningful connections between students and outside mentors.
- The Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings operates a small but impactful consortium addressing policy, technology, and curriculum needs specific to juvenile justice education across multiple states.
- Transition support and mentorship after release are critical to reducing recidivism, with truancy and school access being major barriers to successful reintegration for formerly incarcerated youth.
About Kat CrawfordKat Crawford is director of technology solutions for the Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings, a nonprofit working to improve education in juvenile justice facilities. Over seven years, she has worked in 39 states implementing technology solutions and curriculum initiatives for incarcerated youth.
AI-generated from the meeting recording — AI can make mistakes, so check the recording for anything important.
Meeting for the week of January 21-27, 2018
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Unsung: The Voices of Youth Justice
Speaker: Kat Crawford
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page.Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time.Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you; read it while on public transit, waiting in line for coffee, or even at the park! Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
Welcome to the Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley!
Here’s a message from President Andrew:
Greetings Rotarians and Guests,I'm constantly meeting incredibly inspiring and admirable folks (present company included) who are avid readers. I don't think this is a coincidence. Whether it's fiction, non-fiction, or poetry, a finished work is the culmination of its author's knowledge, research, or artistry, which can represent a lifetime's work distilled to several nights of page-turning. In an even more basic way than accessing the internet, teaching either a child or an adult to read, unlocks new worlds, possibilities, skills, and morsels of joy. So I'm incredibly excited about what Kat Crawford has to talk about this week. As we leave comments/questions for her, let's also share a really cool book we've read recently!
Sincerely,
Andrew Taw,
PresidentRotary eClub of Silicon Valley
Weekly Funny with the Lady of Laughter (LOL)
We believe laughter is an important part of life, and we should all make time to laugh a little. This segment of our meeting is meant to tickle you just enough. These funnies are curated by member Yvonne Kwan, our “Lady of Laughter!”
In honor of my school's spelling bee taking place this week, here are some jokes to get you buzzing!
What does a wasp say during an identity crisis?"To bee or not to bee!"
What do you call a bee that's having a bad hair day?A frisbee!
What goes zzub, zzub?A bee flying backwards!
Weekly inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
Nearly 90% of the United States population has at least one caffeinated beverage every day. Learn about the chemistry of caffeine, how it causes increased alertness and focus, and how caffeine is capable of causing overdoses.
World of
After the storm:A year after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, local Rotary members continue to rebuild homes and lives
Learn more at https://www.rotary.org/en/rotary-members-rebuild-after-hurricane-maria.
Coffee with a Rotarian
A natural part of Rotary is the networking and the fellowship you get out of meeting other Rotarians. Coffee With a Rotarian is a monthly program of our club where we match participating club members for one-on-one virtual (or in some cases in person) coffee meetings, so they can learn more about each other. This program is organized by member Tzviatko Chiderov.
This week we have Manuj from Delhi, India reporting on a chat with Brian from Corralitos, CA, USA.
Brian is born and brought up in San Francisco. Lawyer by profession, Father by Duty. Runs his own practise and has 2 daughters studying in Hindu(Indian) based schools. He is fun loving go to person. It was indeed a pleasure talking to him. Good to know someone from a professional background. I am glad tht I git this opportunity. Happy Rotaraction!
We encourage all club members to participate in Coffee With a Rotarian. You can sign up here!
Service report
Tell us about service you’ve done recently in your community.Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
On the first meeting of every month, we feature service reports from club members for the previous month. Thanks for your service everyone!
For members only
Past Announcements
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Our events & projects
We hold our meetings online, but we do regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of the events and service projects listed here.
Also be sure to join our Meetup Group for automatic calendar updates and to RSVP for our events! These are open to all guests as well!
Upcoming events
All times are Pacific Time! (San Francisco time)More events coming soon! All events are open to guests, unless otherwise mentioned. Feel free to join us! If you ever have questions, please email inquiries@siliconvalleyrotary.com
What would you like to do?
Hey Members! What would you like to do? We’re working on putting together some exciting socials and impactful service projects for our upcoming quarter’s event calendar. Let us know what you want to do by posting in our members only Facebook Group (if you don’t have access, please request it with Webmaster Mitty). Remember, you’re only taking advantage of the full impact of Rotary when you’re stepping up to get involved.
Happy Dollars: do good by sharing something good
Each week we ask our members to share stories with the club and toss in a few dollars to support our efforts. The primary goal of this section is to provide a fun way of getting to know each fellow members and guests, while giving back to a good cause.
Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!This section is usually updated on the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Rory Olsen made a $20 donation.All is well!
Brian Liddicoat made a $15 donation.Loving the torrential rain we're getting in the SF Bay Area this week.... keep it coming!
Share your happy dollars thoughts with us and help with doing good around the world.
Selected comments
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select a few comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are the comments selected from last week’s meeting.
ShagsCA said:What an amazing program! This would be a great partnership for our Club -- sponsor a chair and raise funds for it. Did you see the little blurb about Tommy James and the Shondells (above in World of Rotary) Concert put on by a Rotary Club? They sold just 550 tickets at $97 each but got $100,000 in sponsorships (20@$2,500) with a 2 for 1 match from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, so it raised just over $200,000 before expenses. There are much larger venues around here for something like that. Just thinking out loud...
John Funk said:What a great way to make a difference in the lives of these kids and bring them some positive attention! I really like what you were saying about having gaps in life and making something beautiful to overcome them and impact others.
Catherine A said:From your first, "Toothless", to the Justice League set of chairs, your creativity is amazing, as are you, Ryan, for conceptualizing charming artistic worlds for your children and other kids to inhabit. So awesome that the Stan Winston School team and other SoCAL model builders are enthusiastically behind you and your Magic Wheelchair work. I'm totally with Shags, our club should become an ongoing participant in your program locally, and we should sponsor chairs each year, if not more often.Of all of the programs I've watched since I've joined Rotary, this program and Magic Wheelchair is my absolute favorite for its heart, joy, creativity and inspiration. I've watched this program twice so far this week and I may watch it again! Thank you, Ryan!
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!
Program: Unsung: The Voices of Youth Justice
Speaker: Kat Crawford
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others. Special thanks to member Roger Plested for leading our club's Programs Committee in finding us amazing speakers each week.
Kat studied musical theatre performance at Mountview Theatre School in London, England. She still sings her heart out, but does it while building blogs, typing tweets, and Facebooking frantically. In 2001, Kat started teaching drama in NYC and left after several years to pursue a master’s degree. In Integrating Technology in the Classroom, Kat found her new calling.Kat joined the Center for Educational Excellence in Alternative Settings (CEEAS) in February of 2013 as the Director of Technology Solutions. Since then she has made an impact in secure care schools in more than thirty-eight states. She uses her comic timing to deliver high-quality, interactive, and engaging professional development to teachers and administrators in secure settings.She has played an integral role in developing and designing nationwide initiatives such as Words Unlocked, Unbound, and Unsung. At the beginning of 2014, CEEAS launched Unjammed, a blended learning initiative for juvenile justice agencies interested in using technology to transform teaching and learning inside of their secure care facilities. Kat is the lead for this initiative and has managed the administrative and teacher interface of the project. This successful initiative received many standing ovations and was recently featured on NPR’s Marketplace. Kat is looking forward to returning to the stage for Unjammed 6.0 in 2019.Kat lives in Austin, Texas with her bearded betrothed, two make-up blogging daughters, three crazy dogs, and one churlish chinchilla.Members and guests, please welcome Kat Crawford!
Additional resources:
Sign up for Kat's newsletter for the initiative: https://www.smore.com/whfuj-unsungView her slides from this presentation: https://goo.gl/2RtoJQFollow Kat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dramatickatLast year's first place song from Unjammed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IF-jOyllHII
Share your thoughts or ask our speaker a question in the comments at the bottom of this meeting page!
Upcoming program recording schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
Our online video conference room link for these recordings is always https://zoom.us/j/5104080000. You are welcome to join us! Please note the timezone listed for all recordings is US Pacific Time (San Francisco, California, USA).If you can’t join the live recording, please send your questions for an upcoming speaker to programs@siliconvalleyrotary.com.
