Spring 2012 Outreach at Prosperity Gardens!

WCIA 3 News Covered a demonstration by Mike Brunk regarding Composting!

 Despite the rain, we weren't going to let it stop our day of fun-filled learning and community engagement. Friday morning, the students were introduced to Nicole Bridges, who is the visionary of Prosperity Gardens. She explained to us the future plans of turning the old evidence building into a community center that will serve as a center of education and production of fresh food year-round. Shortly after, we toured the neighborhood and Nicole shared community plans and informed us of additional community-based programs and establishments. Later, Mike Brunk, the Arborist for the City of Urbana, met with our team and explained the ins and outs of composting and demonstrated how to compost in our own backyards! WCIA 3 News covered the demonstration and hopefully we can get the word out about the ease of composting!! Prior to lunch, we visited another community-based organization, the Re-Store, run by the Habitat for Humanity. I got to know the students much better during our lunch at the Fiesta Cafe. After lunch we visited the Landscape Recycling Center in Urbana to see "where the [composting] magic happens!" What a massive place! Our final visit during our rain-plagued day was to the IDEA Store on First and Springfield. It's a great little store that recycles anything and everything and generates great adaptive re-use ideas for patrons! Anything from Pringles containers to zippers and dental tools, there's something for everyone!

Saturday we were blessed with a great deal of sunshine that motivated the mass efforts of revamping Prosperity Gardens. Patrick Hatch and I led a crew of students in building a 6' x 3' composting bin!

It took all day, but we got it done and it is the most beautiful composting bin I've even seen! We else edged the flower garden with freshly painted edging bricks, weeded the corn field, built a fence around the produce garden to keep hungry critters at bay, and spread mulch.

Lord & Lacy hosted an awesome Cook-Out Jubilee and neighborhood residents and business owners came out to join us! It was a great weekend and the student learned so much about their C-U community, benefits of gardening, and we really broke the invisible boundaries that exist between the University and Community. For me, it was a great end to an awesome experience over the last three years working with ESLARP and AR.I. I'll miss everyone and am elated to see the progress we are making here an home, in our own neighborhood, amongst our own people. - JG

Hoop Houses for the Prosperity Garden

Here are some pictures of students hard at work constructing the hoop houses at the North First Street Prosperity Garden on Saturday February 25th. The hoop houses will allow the garden to get an early start on the planting for this growing season!

Prepping beds in Prosperity Gardens

On Saturday, February 25th, students from FAA 291 worked with Prosperity Gardens to build protective tents for six of the planting beds. The tents will protect seedlings from the harsh and often unpredictable weather conditions that a Midwestern spring bring. The tents will also allow Prosperity Garden to get an early start on developing their delicious vegetable garden. Vegetables harvested in the summer months will be sold at the North First Street Farmers Market, right next to Prosperity Gardens.

February 24-25th, 2012 - Saturday Outreach Weekend Activities

[Students preparing smoke detectors for installation]

On Friday, Alita, Officer Bob and I took students around the OKO neighborhood to install smoke detectors in residential homes. Bob gave us a history and crime overview of the neighborhood and explained what measures the Decatur Police Department put in place to cool down crime and drug hot spots in the area.


We installed about ten smoke detectors and provided the residents maintenance information and instructions for care. Afterwards, we were briefed on our tasks for our Community Cook-In and greeted residents as they arrived. The students were given clipboards and conversation starters for their interactions with the residents during the Cook-In.
They learned about the needs and desires of the neighborhood and what resources are in demand so the OKO Community Center can strategize how to better serve their community and involve more adults. They students also played with the children!


Lunch was a great success for the students, residents and supports of the Community Center. Following the Cook-In and cleanup, we all sat with Alita and she asked for our reflections and findings of the residents during lunch. Many adults were keen on the integration of more adult-targeted support activities.


We also did a "plus - delta" assessment of our weekend with the Old Kings Orchard Community Center, whereby the students were able to share their opinions of success and what they think can change next time around. After our reflection, we helped clean up and a team went back around the neighborhood to install more smoke detectors. We capped our weekend at Decatur's Kreckles restaurant and returned back to campus before dark!

Nov. 28/29, 2011 ~ This weekend 30 University students, faculty and staff travelled to East St. Louis for what might very well have been our last official ‘Outreach Weekend’ in East St. Louis. The group was comprised of students from three courses, Martin Wolske’s LIS 451 graduate students, Vicki Eddings’ FAA 291 group of undergrad students from across campus and Prof. Robert Hughes’ FAA 291 HCD group of Human and Community Development Freshmen students.

Upon arrival at Eagle’s Nest Martha Watts (founder and Executive Director) joined us and gave the students a wonderful overview of the Veterans shelter followed by a tour of the facility. Billie Turner soon joined us for her legendary ‘tour’ of East St. Louis where she treated the students to lots of stories and historical facts about her city.

After lunch the students were eager to begin their weekend projects at Pirtle's, Village Theatre and the Public Television Station. Patrick Hatch, ESLARP alum currently working as an auditor with HUD came to work with us for the weekend. It was fitting that he joined us this weekend as he has been with ESLARP almost since its inception.

Projects:

Village Theatre – Patrick and Bob Hughes took on the siding project which turned out to be much more than they bargained for. The two leaders, with assistance from Christina, and six undergrad students got right to work and before the weekend was over they had successfully accomplished their goal! The students learned new skills and made new friends – it was an excellent experience just to watch!

Pirtle’s – Pirtle’s is becoming a new favorite project spot for our students. The undergrad students worked with LIS grad students to install desks and vinyl flooring in both the new computer room and the ice cream store. They had a blast this weekend. Mr. Pirtle treated everyone to free ice cream and lots of positive feedback about their work.

Public Access Television Station – Friday, some of the FAA 291 students worked with LIS grads painting and preparing for a new computer lab. This project is a new venture and we’re looking forward to seeing the results of the LIS 451 students’ technical efforts.

ESLARP tool move – A few of the students volunteered (?) to help pack and clean up ESLARP’s tool shed in preparation for the move to Champaign. Although the work was dirty and sometimes heavy lifting was involved, they were great and hung in there with me as we went through all the tools and other things we had stockpiled over the years. By the end of Saturday the U-haul was packed with tools ready to be brought to their new home with Action Research.Illinois in Champaign . . . progress can be good but sad!


Many thanks to those who helped this weekend – you know who you are! I’m looking forward to all the new adventures in East Central Illinois.

Prosperity Garden

The second outreach weekend in Champaign was kicked off to a great start Saturday morning with a new group of students from both FAA and HDR classes working hard in the Prosperity Gardens on North First Street. Students began their morning by winterizing the vegetable garden, clearing the corn field, and trimming back the rain garden on the north side of the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance building. Maintaining the growth of the rain garden keeps the plants healthy and adds to the aesthetics of the neighborhood. Before breaking for lunch, students got a head start on various tasks to prepare for the North First Street Halloween Extravaganza event for neighborhood children on Monday afternoon.

During the lunchtime cookout, everyone had an opportunity interact and get to know one another over some great barbeque and sports time in the park. The best part was that community members and neighborhood kids came out to join us in playing games and they referred to the college students as “the cool big kids.” It was great to see as many smiles on the students’ faces as there were on the kids’!

After lunch, our team continued preparing for the Extravaganza and started decorating the site by turning the scarecrows into mummies and carving pumpkins to set out. When we finished up turning the garden into a scary graveyard, we set out to help another team rake leaves at the home of an elderly couple who have made a great contribution in the community. Thanks to our team’s extra effort, everyone’s yard was finished as scheduled. AR.I and all of our community partners made this a great outreach weekend and a huge success!!!

October 2011 Outreach Weekend

Saturday morning got off to a cold start, but quickly turned into a beautiful day. My team got started bright and early and Shadow Wood. Our project was to paint the community center that the Library and Information Science students are working on turning into a computer lab. While our group was small, we were eager and quickly had the first coat up on the walls.

Lunch came at a perfect time because we had worked up quite an appetite. The community cookout was so much fun! We got to eat GREAT barbecue and mingle with the other students. The best part however, was getting to meet some community members and play football and soccer with some of the neighborhood kids. Seeing their reaction and excitement to have us around was extremely inspiring. The cookout came to an end and we went back to Shadow Wood to finish up painting.

By the end of the day Saturday, we were tired and covered in paint, but felt accomplished and inspired by the community and the people who are working to make it a better place. We were all very excited to be back, working in the Champaign-Urbana community. Can't wait to see what the future holds for AR.I!!

Welcome to AR.I in Action!! Formerly ESLARP in Action

Greetings!

I would like to welcome you to our new Blogspot Domain: http://ariinaction.blogspot.com

Action Research.Illinois (AR.I) is a public outreach program that works with partners across the State of Illinois, with a particular focus in East Central Illinois Communities.

AR.I maintains an on-going program of sustained engagement with community partners and public agencies, addressing social justice, human and environmental sustainability, and development in distressed areas and with marginalized populations through service learning and action research.

Together with residents and community organizations in severely distressed areas of Illinois, faculty, staff and students from across the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign endeavor to work on highly tangible and visible projects that address immediate and long-term needs.

Action Research.Illinois acts as an umbrella organization to support and sustain these vital University of Illinois projects:
~The East St. Louis Action Research Project (ESLARP)
~ILLINOIS Global Action Research (IGAR)
~Citizens Air Quality Project (CAP)
~Courses

Available Funding:
~Seed Grants for Course Development 2011
~Faculty Mentor Program 2011


Please see our website for more information: http://www.actionresearch.illinois.edu