Mosaic’s Fall Magic!
Dear Mosaic Community,
We hope you are having a great autumn season! Here at The Mosaic Project, we’ve been deeply inspired by our students, youth leaders, and staff who have just made our Fall 2009 Outdoor School a great success. Four hundred thirty-four children from dramatically different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds joined together to learn how to bring peace back to their schools and communities.
We are very excited to release our next two segments of The Mosaic Project/Brett Dennen Video Miniseries. They’re very funny, if we may say so ourselves, and we hope you enjoy them. Please pass the videos on to others who might appreciate them and spread the Mosaic love! Stay tuned for future segments in which Brett will introduce the rest of our staff.
We would also like to update you on the progress of our new, comprehensive Mosaic In-School Project. With the support of our Teachers’ Wisdom Council we are fine-tuning our new curriculum and bringing Mosaic magic into kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms in four of our Oakland partner schools.
Jill Guerra, a key member of our Teachers’ Wisdom Council, is a dedicated teacher at one of these four pilot schools, Sankofa Academy. She has been instrumental in bringing The Mosaic Outdoor School and In-School Project to Sankofa. Many thanks to Jill and all of the Mosaic teachers whose support makes our work possible!
“I work with mostly African American students and many of them do not have positive exposure to people from outside of their culture. They make assumptions. Mosaic allows them the opportunity to dispel myths based on stereotypes and to create authentic relationships based on trust and open minds. My first students to attend Mosaic are now in 7th grade. Whenever I see them, they always have a Mosaic story or question like, ‘Why can't we go back?’ Mosaic is a unique but necessary experience that has the potential to change the world... one kid at a time.” –Jill Guerra
Next spring, after experiencing our In-School Project all year long, classes from each of the four pilot schools will spend a week together at a Mosaic Outdoor School session. Afterwards, their families and teachers will be invited to come together for a community potluck.
We are able to offer our comprehensive In-School Project to Mosaic partner schools for only $5,000. Unfortunately, drastic budget cuts across the board mean that some interested schools will not be able to afford these costs. Therefore, we are inviting community-concerned businesses to sponsor a school’s participation. This will give businesses great publicity while also supporting this important program.
Do you know of a community-concerned business that would appreciate this opportunity? Please email us your ideas and contacts, and help us continue bringing peace and understanding to our schools! Thank you!
Peacing it together,
Lara and the rest of the Mosaic Team