THE MARS PROJECT TO:
BORRIS POWELL; DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS
FROM: OMAR-XAVIOR R. FORD; MARS PROJECT COORDINATOR SUBJECT: MARCH-APRIL 2005 REPORT DATE: 5/13/2005 CC:
March-April 2005 Activities: • Rainbow Roller-skating: The first Thursday of each month from 9pm-1am, the MARS Project sponsors trips to Empire Roller-skating “Rainbow Skating”. Rainbow skating is specifically for the LGBT community. Trips average 13 members per month. • American Museum of Natural History/IMAX Theater: Scavenger hunt to locate various objects throughout the museum. Youth have clue sheets and incentives were given to the group that could locate the most items on the sheet. Youth then attended a celebration dinner after the museum. 5 Members attended this trip. • Spring Youth Retreat 2005: 13 Mars members attended retreat for 2.5 days of workshops and recreational activities. • Monthly Movies: Recreational trips to local theater to see: Beauty Shop, Boogie Man and The Ring 2. Each trip averages 8-10 participants.
Training/Workshops: • YMCC Quarterly meeting: Attending MARS members: Jariel Wiley, Curtis Roach, Julian Smith, Corey Bryan, Karon Smith.
Featured topic for this quarterly meeting was Crystal Meth use and HIV. • CRE presentation on Youth and HIV: Justin Walker-MARS member spoke on a panel with other guests. Justin represented youth from NYC living with HIV/AIDS to speak to possible founders on the need to further fund youth programs in NYC. Founders included the Paul Rappaport Foundation and The Ford Foundation. • Councilmen Bill Perkins TV special on Homeless Youth: Justin Walkers spoke with Councilmen Bill Perkins on the councilmen’s monthly TV show. Justin spoke extensively on the issues of homeless youth and some of the contributing factors that lead to youth becoming homeless, primarily around break down of family support. The show will air in April on Public Access Television. • PYD Training: Working with the Black Gay Network, Positive Youth Development trainings have been offered to MARS members. These trainings were designed to allow MARS members opportunities to learn about Youth Development strategies as well as Facilitative Leadership skills. Youth will continue with series of workshops on Levels of Leadership and Positive Youth Development. With these trainings, youth will begin to take more leadership over the MARS Project. 5 MARS members have completed hours of training for PYD. • Bronx Aids Services Youth Development Training: Collaborations with Bronx AIDS Services on a series of workshops on Youth Development.
Collaborations and Presentations: • Presentation at The DOOR: MARS Project presentation to The DOOR youth group. Information and presentation of the MARS website.
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• Presentation at F.I.E.R.C.E: MARS Project presentation to The F.I.E.R.C.E youth group. Information and presentation of the MARS website. • SAGE: During the months of March-April, members have been involved with documentary projects with various agencies. SAGE has been working with 2 MARS members to create individual documentaries on LGBTQ youth. This documentary will be coupled with several other documentaries for a much larger project that will be featured during Black Pride Month. • Story Corp: Story Corp is a not for profit organization that has been operating for 2 years recording oral histories of participants. Story Corp has contacted the MARS Project office because of the Daily News Article about Cedric Dunham being reunited with his father with interest in recording the oral history of some of the MARS members. The recording both is located in Grand Central Station and after the session is done, participants will get a copy of the recording. Some of the recordings maybe processed to be submitted to the Library of Congress. Justin Walker and his mother have been scheduled to be one of the first participants.
Referrals: • Project STAY: March-April has been a heavy referral period for the program. Youth have been participating in quarterly health screenings for HIV/STI’s. Youth have also accessed services from Project STAY independent of the program. Youth have now become acclimated to these quarterly screenings and will request them or take the initiative to access Project STAY on their own. Youth have also be connected to Project STAY via the MARS Project website. Youth have been accessing the chat room to ask varying health questions that have prompted initial intakes with Project STAY. Youth also have direct access to Project STAY’s contact information via the MARS Project website. •
http://www.gmad.org/mars Youth have used the website for job information/event information as well as recreational activities. The
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chat room has also begun to see more youth specific traffic. The “web cam� feature has also been enabled, allowing visitors to the MARS website an opportunity to view the MARS Project act ivies on Fridays and Saturdays. Current site counter is over 2100 visitors.
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