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May 23
, 2003
Local
Teen Mothers and Mount Holyoke Students Team up for Park Clean
up
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Mount
Holyoke students and students from Holyoke's Care
Center teamed up May 2 to spruce up Valley Arena Park in
Holyoke. |
With the help of the
Holyoke Youth Task force and in collaboration with the AmeriCorps
program, a group of students from Holyoke's Care Center
and the College celebrated spring with some spring cleaning May
2. The group pitched in to spruce up Valley Arena Park in Holyoke,
a cleanup that was the culmination of a yearlong community participation
project sponsored by the Care Center and Mount Holyoke. Designed
to engage students in issues affecting their community, the endeavor
involved members of Associate Professor of Politics Preston Smith's
community development class and a group of young mothers who utilize
the Care Center, a multiservice alternative education center that
serves more than 120 pregnant and parenting teens.
In the first phase of the project, students conducted a park inventory,
resident surveys, research on park budgets, and interviews with
city officials and presented their findings and recommendations
at a conference held at MHC last spring. "This effort was
designed to provide students with hands-on skills that will not
only increase their involvement in the community, but will advance
their academic skills as well," said project coordinator
and Frances Perkins Scholar Irma Medina of the Care Center. The
Valley Arena Park project marked the beginning of the second phase
of the students' work. They received a grant from the Holyoke
Youth Task Force to move forward on the cleanup portion of their
plan. The effort was timed to coincide with the eighth annual
Holyoke City-Serve Day organized by AmeriCorps.
The
counter is
1,754
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