Day of Peace

More great news from the Missing Peace Art Space here in St. Anne's Hill!

Dayton’s celebration of the U.N. sponsored International Day of Peace will be held at the Missing Peace Art Space on Tuesday, September 21, 2010, from 5:00 to 8:30 p.m. City dignitaries will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for the Grand Opening of the Urban Youth Peace Academy, which will be headquartered at the gallery.

In 1981, the United Nations designated September 21 as International Day of Peace and the day has since been celebrated worldwide. “Dayton: Peace in Perspective” is this year’s local International Day of Peace theme in recognition that most of us are fortunate enough to have a high degree of peace in our lives.

The Urban Youth Peace Academy is a grassroots student organization that grew out of streetpeace, a peace and social justice education program at Ruskin School and East End Community Services. As students completed their 8thgrade year at Ruskin, they wanted to continue their peace studies, sustain the community of learners they had formed, and invite new students from the various high schools they would be attending, into the peace process. In response to this dream, they came together as a core group of student leaders to form the Urban Youth Peace Academy, with a membership representing schools throughout the Dayton Public School district.

Students in the Urban Youth Peace Academy will participate in a full curriculum on Tuesday evenings, including the study of such books as A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah; Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl; and Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozal. They will participate in discussion circles around such movies as Blood Diamond; Life is Beautiful; Schindler’s List; Gran Torino; and The Chamber. Students will have opportunities for instruction and practice in non-violent responses to real life conflict.

Ruskin Update

 FYI.... check out the new website for the school, too!

Do you have at least 1 hour a week? 

The kids are back in school and volunteers are needed!

Volunteers are needed at Ruskin School for one on one tutoring (K-8^th), grounds crew (pulling weeds, trimming bushes), and more!  If you are interested contact David Lobo at 259-1898 or email him at dlobo@east-end.org.  Each volunteer will need to complete an application, background check and brief orientation.

Amanda Arrington

Community Organizer

East End Community Services

624 Xenia Avenue

Dayton, OH 45410

937.259.1898 ext 21

CRA News

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FYI, Part 3.

I've blogged about this before, but most people still don't know about the CRA program that provides property tax abatements in most of Dayton's historic districts, including St. Anne's Hill. Recently, a new Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) was created for our neighbors in the Twin Towers neighborhood.



Here are some excerpts from the article about it in the Dayton Daily News...

The designation means that property owners who spend at least $5,000 on their single-family home or two-unit apartment could be eligible for a 100 percent property tax exemption for 10-years on the increased value resulting from the improvements....

The push for the designation comes from East End Community Services Corporation, the Oberer Development Company and St. Mary’s Development Corp., partners in Twin Towers Crossing, a 40-unit housing development....

About 25 of the homes valued at $200,000 are under roof with drywall going up.

Anyone making substantial renovations (improvements) to a property in St. Anne's Hill can also qualify for the tax abatement. For more information, contact the City of Dayton Department of Planning & Community Development at 333-3670.

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East End

Check out the new house going up on McClure Street! Okay, technically it is not in St. Anne's Hill but just across the bridge, near Ruskin School and St. Mary's Church. Still, this is good news for the community.



The house is part of the Twin Towers Crossing project, that will build almost 40 new lease-to-own homes in east Dayton. The project is driven by East End Community Services with financial support from the City of Dayton and State of Ohio.



They are are also running the new (and very popular) De-Construction program. That program hires unemployed workers to dismantle nuisance structures by hand, and then sell the materials. Not only does it create jobs, but it reduces the waste stream going to landfills.



Just another example of the great things happening in Dayton!

Grants

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Two big grant announcements this week that will definitely have a positive impact on our community! Both were reported in the Dayton Daily News.



First, an expansion of the popular "De-Construction" program that saves historic building materials and sells them for re-use...

DAYTON — The Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission said it will administer a $1.5 million federal economic stimulus job-training grant that will pay for work by various organizations to dismantle old, vacant houses.

East End Community Services, PowerNet, Architectural Reclamation Co., St. Vincent de Paul and Dayton Works Plus LLC are involved in a partnership effort to dismantle the vacant homes.

They will be displaying materials at this weekend's Home Show at Hara Arena.

Even bigger news, the City of Dayton and a coalition of regional partners won a huge $29 million stimulus grant!

The cities of Dayton, Kettering and Fairborn along with Montgomery County and the Dayton Metropolitan Housing Authority jointly applied for the Neighborhood Stabilization II funds to finance purchase of foreclosed homes for either demolition or rehab.

The goal is getting properties back on the housing market, Sorrell said. The award will address approximately 1,000 structures with work expected to get underway by late February.

Dayton neighborhoods likely impacted by the grant are Santa Clara; a swath of houses west of Main Street in the 45406 ZIP code; the Greater Inner West area, Westwood, Twin Towers, Walnut Hills, Linden Heights and Inner East.

Congrats to the community leaders who make these projects happen. More good news is on the way!

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Education News

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Our neighbhors at Ruskin Elementary and East End Community Services are seeking voluteers and tutors....

East End Community Services partners with Ruskin Pre-K-8th Elementary School in East Dayton with the goal of helping all students achieve academic success. In April students in grades 3-8 will take the Ohio Achievement Tests to determine degrees of proficiency in Reading, Math, Social Studies, Science, and Writing as defined by the Ohio Department of Education. East End is supporting Ruskin’s teachers in preparing children for the test by making ourselves available for one-on-one tutoring. We are recruiting others to join us in tutoring children – particularly in the areas of Reading and Math.

If you can spare an hour a week, after 2:00 until 5:00 we can match you with a child at Ruskin. The child’s academic needs have been assessed, and a tutoring plan has been tailored to meet the needs of the student. You will attend an orientation program that includes information about how to effectively tutor a child, and you will be equipped with a tutoring kit that includes flashcards, worksheets, and other academically relevant materials. Prior to being matched you will need to go through a background check that takes just a few minutes of your time.

Please contact Stephanie Smith at East End Community Services for more information and to receive an application form. Thanks for considering this opportunity to change a child’s life.

Stephanie Smith, Volunteer Coordinator
East End Community Services
937 259-1898
ssmith@east-end.org
624 Xenia Avenue
Dayton, Ohio 45410

Also, the new STEM regional school is now taking applications! We got this note from one of our neighbors in South Park:

Do you have a child who is very interested or gifted in the fields of Science, Engineering and Math? The New Dayton Regional STEM School (DRSS) is taking applications through March 2nd for the new class of 9th graders that will start in August.

This is a public school and is hosted by Wright State University and the Air Force Research Lab, with additional support from the University of Dayton, Clark State University, and the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT). It will serve Greene, Montgomery and Clark Counties.

Here is the school's website - http://www.daytonstemschool.org/ as well as a few great articles about this school and the other six that Ohio has created this year. These articles explain how these schools are key to helping Ohio migrate from an industrial age to an information age economy.

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