Alaska ICE News Feb. 2011 Volume 6, Issue 2 Alaska ICE is the Alaska Initiative for Community Engagement, a statewide initiative of the Association of Alaska School Boards (AASB). Community Engagement is the intentional action of groups and individuals working together to create healthy environments that support the growth and education of children and youth.
Kids These Days radio If you haven’t tuned in to Kids These Days radio, or visited the website, you’re missing out.
Helping Kids Succeed Alaskan-Style!
10 Years of Alaska ICE: A Vision Becomes Reality ICE’s annual report highlights progress, partnerships, evaluation results, and lessons learned from a decade of innovative collaborations. View the 2010 Report at: www.alaskaice.org A decade of Alaska ICE actively partnering with schools and collaborating with communities to help kids succeed is producing positive results. What began as a small group of dedicated individuals with a big idea has steadily grown into a broad-based statewide initiative with many partners working to build a strong web of support for Alaska’s young people.
Ten years working proudly with schools and communities from Ketchikan to Barrow... Clear evidence of this positive transformation is steadily mounting: • More positive environments for youth in schools and communities,
Through individual and combined local efforts by adults • Increased levels of adult support for and involvement and youth in support of healthier communities and young with youth, people, school and community climates are improving. Supportive relationships with adults in and out of the • Improved youth outcomes in academic engagement and school setting are associated with achievement gains and, achievement, social and emotional learning, and risk with our ongoing support, numerous organizations across behaviors, especially for Alaska Native students. Alaska are transitioning to a positive, strength-based ap- > Continued on Page 2 proach to youth development.
Alaska ICE Launches New-Look Web Site
The shows are interesting, informative, and entertaining all at the same time! And the website is chock full of webextras related to show topics in the form of links, video, articles, and research.
As Alaska ICE marks a decade of innovative school, community and organizational partnerships improving the climate for Alaska’s kids, we are also ushering in a new online presence. www.AlaskaICE.org remains a link connecting our membership and others with great community and youth engagement news and education information.
Recent show topics explored have included fatherhood, love & family relationships, the value of music, foster care in Alaska, and grandparents.
We have transitioned to a cleaner look resembling the AASB website and reorganized our banner tabs and materials in a way that you will hopefully find to be more appealing and user-friendly. New to the ICE site are buttons along the left sidebar with content tailored to specific audiences: “Youth,” “Parents/Families,” and “Communities;” school climate and community engagement sections, and much more.
www.kidsthesedays.org
www.alaskaice.org
We invite you to come take a look, navigate through different pages and sections and learn more about who we are, the different collaborative projects we’ve participated in, and the positive results and data that we’ve seen.
www.alaskaice.org We are in the process of transferring remaining files and community photos, but are well on our way. If you have trouble locating a file or article, try the “search bar” in the upper left corner of the site, or contact us at aasb@aasb. org. Thank you for your patience in this process. Feel free to drop us a note on your thoughts about the new site (positive or negative) at: aasb@aasb.org.
Alaska ICE News
www.alaskaice.org
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10 Years of Alaska ICE - continued from Page 1
The Arts Engage Students All 60 kindergartners at a Juneau elementary school are learning to play the violin in Juneau Alaska Music Matters (JAMM), an innovative program that engages families and builds school readiness skills such as focus, discipline, selfcontrol, small and gross motor skills, perseverance, delayed gratification, teamwork, and social emotional learning.
Districts and communities with strong commitments and active engagement over time showed the most positive results. AASB remains committed to building upon these encouraging trends by continuing to assist Alaskans in creating healthy and resilient communities that support kids. “The safer and more connected students and teachers are, the better our students do.”
- Sammy Crawford, Kenai School Board
Sustainable community change takes time, but it is possible when people and organizations make a commitment to work together. Everyone shares in the responsibility of helping all our young people succeed, and there are endless opportunities to participate within families, neighborhoods, schools, youth organizations, faith communities, businesses…wherever adults interact with children and youth.
...Chalkyitsik to Unalaska, and places in between. Alaska ICE looks forward to continuing established collaborations and building new partnerships for our next 10 years as we work together to improve our school and community climates for Alaska’s children and youth. At Alaska ICE we recognize that it is through the hard work and intentional actions of Alaskans at the local level that we continue to make strides on behalf of our children and youth, and together, our shared goal of helping all of Alaska’s kids succeed will be achieved.
Connecting with Youth Through the Arts
“How we use the 40 Developmental Assets to guide our actions in classrooms and throughout the school is just as important as the academic content that is taught, if we expect the student to learn and thrive.” - Anchorage Secondary School Administrator Let us share the good news from your community with others! Send photos, stories, or event-listings to include in our newsletter and on our website. alaskaice@aasb.org www.alaskaice.org
Adults’ supportive relationships with youth are key to unlocking students’ potential, academically and creatively. Join AASB’s Bridget Smith, Lakota Murray and Annie Caulfield as they lead the 2011 Artist TOPs Workshop, a free two-day training for anyone who engages young people through the arts. The focus of the workshop is connecting adults with youth in both school and community environments through the developmental assets framework and arts disciplines. The training is designed to give participants a thorough understanding of the assets, and a variety of strengthbased tools and techniques for encouraging community and youth engagement at the local level.
Cooking classes in Ketchikan brought youth and adults together for a fun, hands-on learning experience.
Apart from the opportunity to take an in-depth look at the assets framework and its connection to the arts, and sharing insights and ideas with a network of artists from across the state, you will have the time and assistance to plan an arts project for your community with possible funding opportunities.
and creating positive relationships with youth through the arts, contact Bridget Smith at (907) 586-1083 or visit www.alaskaice.org.
Communities that have taken advantage of this offering through the years include Chalkyitsik, Sitka, Homer, Ketchikan, Healy, Nondalton, Haines, Whittier, Two Rivers, and more. Community arts projects range from arts camps to culinary classes, school murals to dance fundraisers, and from community engagement workshops to potter’s studios.
A 2011 Artist TOPs Workshop
For more information on registering for the Artist TOPs
Learning to Connect Through the Arts April 14-15, 2011 Anchorage, AK 8:30am - 4:00pm Space and funding are limited, so apply early! Please respond by March 17th.