By Guest Contributor, on August 20th, 2012 
…takes on Gray over bus depot Written by Darryl Fears, cross-posted from the Washington Post
(Jared Soares/ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST ) – Ivy City resident Andria Swanson near the grounds of the closed Alexander Crummell School.
On any scale, Ivy City is a 98-pound weakling among District neighborhoods. It measures only 1.7 square miles near the Maryland border in Northeast and has some of the city’s poorest residents, with an unemployment rate approaching 50 percent.
But that has not stopped the D.C. government from placing a heavy burden on Ivy City’s scrawny shoulders, making it a base of operations for large projects other neighborhoods shun, “a dumping ground,” residents say.
Ivy City is dotted with parking lots for scores of government vehicles — quarter-ton snowplows, salt trucks, parking-enforcement vehicles and school buses that belch exhaust as they rumble through the streets. Recently, when Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) announced a plan to build a bus depot for 65 D.C-to-New York motorcoaches in the heart of Ivy City, residents said “enough” and filed a lawsuit to stop it.
There is a lot at stake in the showdown between one of the city’s smallest neighborhoods and the mayor. Bus travel is a major boon for the city; ridership rose from nearly 2 million in 1999 to nearly 7 million in 2009, according to the District Department of Transportation’s 2011 Motorcoach Action Plan.
[Only a portion of the above article is posted here. For the complete article go to Ivy City, tired of being a D.C. “dumping ground,” takes on Gray over bus depot.]
By Guest Contributor, on August 18th, 2012 
By Luke, Crossposted from DC’s Independent Media Center.
The multi-billion dollar redevelopment plan for Union Station includes an ugly extra: an “Interim plan” to park idling inter-city buses at Crummell School, in Ivy City. Many residents there already have asthma. On the 15th of August, over half of participants in an “open house” at Union Station about the proposed “master plan” were from Empower DC.
This was not a speaking presentation, but rather a collection of tables with information about the planned project. As usual, they were not soliciting any real public input, just saying “here’s what we have already decided to do” while meeting legal technicalities required of such projects.
Children wore dust masks as a symbol of diesel smoke from idling buses. Empower DC T-shirts were everywhere, as were tough questions about parking “Chinatown” buses in an African-American residential neighborhood.
One of the tough questions was my own: where’s the money, an estimated $7 billion, for the project going to come from. The answer was that they don’t know-nobody is admitting to a funding source for the project. Artwork for the proposal shows office buildings built in the “air rights” over the tracks, but relying on the demand for office space for funding is chancy at best in an uncertain economy. If funding evaporates partway through the project, the proposed 10 year “interim” bus parking at Crummell School could become permanent.
Kids in masks, hopefully they won’t have to wear them for 10 years of “interim” bus parking!
Empower DC marches in, security says no but gives up after being ignored.
Who’s in the (open) house? Empower DC dominates event as not many other DC residents show up.
By Adwoa Masozi, on August 13th, 2012 
“People are just not reaching us where we are at. We want to be reached.”– Washington, D.C. focus group youth participant.
In the following audio podcast, radio journalist Netfa Freeman interviews Dr. Melissa Neal about her report Mindful of the Consequences: Improving the Mental Health for DC’s Youth Benefits the District as well as Dr. Joy DeGruy on her book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Netfa’s reports can be heard regularly on WPFW’s Voices With Vision, Tuesday mornings at 11:00 AM. [haiku url=”http://www.grassrootsmediaproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/JpiReportAndPtss_finalMixdown.mp3″ title=”Experts Report on Mental Health Issues Faced by DC’s Youth”]
By Melissa Neal, DrPH The mental well-being of our youth is crucial to achieving progress and prosperity in our communities. In Washington, DC, youth face particular challenges as disparities in resources and risks vary drastically in just a matter of miles. I wrote JPI’s report, Mindful of the Consequences: Improving the Mental Health for DC’s Youth Benefits the District, to show that current prevention and treatment services do not match the level of need and many youth are at risk for contact with the justice system due to untreated mental problems. To illustrate this, I mapped where arrested youth are coming from: predominately areas of low income and high rates of risk factors that impact mental well-being.
The general attitude toward youth living in these areas (both with and without juvenile justice involvement) has been fear and blame. However, as I prepared to begin writing this report, I came across a few quotes gathered from a focus group with youth on the various challenges that come with growing up in D.C. These youth commented on what they needed…
“If they gave different programs to fit the criteria to why you were locked up, services that help you specifically, maybe even invest in psychologists.” “Guidance and someone there they can look up to that is on the right path. Support other than tutoring, someone they can talk to sometimes if they have a problem.”
I was struck by the fact that these kids know they are not getting the help they need. They are discerning of what their problems are and what they need to begin recovery. What lingered in my mind was “…maybe even invest in psychologists.” Sadness pervades their words: they can be helped but it seems to be too much trouble. These youth are not demanding what they need – they seem to hardly believe they deserve it. But, they do. They deserve an investment in psychologists. They deserve a system that understands the challenges they’ve faced. They deserve a community that cares and will provide the support they need to recover and thrive. Mental health problems are treatable. Whatever the challenges youth have faced that have resulted in poor mental health, they can still be helped into becoming citizens of pride and productivity.
Some D.C. leaders will criticize this report citing the millions of dollars being spent already on mental health – as if that should be enough. My challenge to D.C. leaders is to admit that what is being done is not enough. Too many children are suffering from poor mental health while not receiving the attention needed. Too many youth are being misunderstood when their cry for help looks like aggression. Far too many are being penalized and channeled into a lifetime of involvement with the justice system just because it was too expensive to…invest in psychologists.
Melissa Neal, DrPH, is Senior Research Associate for JPI.
By Jonathan Stith, on July 19th, 2012 
Summer is a time of liberation and growth for youth as it is for movements for justice. Youth are free! You can hear it in the collective shrill at last bell of the year. Youth know instinctively -a moment of freedom is not to be wasted. Yet, we need not be like the grasshopper, who wasted his summer dancing and singing in Aesop’s (who was Ethiopian) fable, The Ant and Grasshopper. We should do as Proverbs suggest consider the ants, who work collectively and rigorously over the summer. What we do in the summer plants the fall’s harvest and provides what we will store to get us through the winter to another spring.
I am excited about the Empower DC Youth Organizing Project’s FIRST Summer program. We have five great young leaders, who will get a chance to introduce themselves below. As EYOP Youth Mobilizers, they will be organizing side-by-side with our great team of organizers and their campaigns, helping to plant the seeds to make Empower DC intergenerational by bring youth into the fight for a fair and just District of Columbia. It is a moment of deep growth for the organization. It is also a moment of liberation. We are planting the seeds for a new generation of activists, leaders and organizers. The youth are our future and they are our NOW. The city needs the inspiring and authentic leadership of its young people now more than ever. Be inspired!
My name is Kamari Bowman but most people call me by my nickname Mari. I was born on July 8th, 1995 in Washington DC. I attend Woodrow Wilson SHS and I’m a rising senior, so that makes me class of 2013. I have interests in many things such as food, music, shopping and cheerleading. My number one interest is food because I love to eat and cook. Some music artists that I enjoy listening to are Trey Songz and Rick Ross. My best friend would say that I am helpful, funny, mature and outgoing, but at times mean. For example there were times in school that I would pick on people for no reason. Also whenever I was upset about something I would take my anger out on others even though they didn’t do anything.
My proudest moment was actually this year because I passed to the 12th grade. My 11th grade year was my hardest year since I started high school. As of right now, I’m considering majoring in Culinary Arts or Social Work. Most likely I think I will end up majoring in Culinary Arts, because like I said before, I love to eat and cook. Right now, I’m not too sure which school I would like to attend to pursue my career choice, but I know that it’s about time that I start looking because the school year will go by fast.
My family means so much to me, I would give up everything I have for my family if it ever came down to that. I always cherish every moment I spend with my family because tomorrow is never promised for anyone.
Whenever I’m out helping the community I’m making a difference. Whether it’s preparing the food at Martha’s Table so it can be cooked or handing out shirts, bread and dessert to the homeless, I’m making a difference. Even if it’s not the community that I’m helping, if I’m helping someone in school or at home I’m making a difference. If I’m teaching or helping a person then they will be able to do the same; it’s called “Paying It Forward.”
Affordable housing is the Empower DC issue that affects me the most because I believe that everyone should have a roof over their head. There are many people out here that work but aren’t making enough money to afford a house of their liking so they need something that can accommodate their price range, and that also goes for the ones who are living off of welfare and social security.
My name is Olando Nath. I was born at Children’s Hospital on May 8th 1996. I’m in the 11th grade at Friendly High School. The Empower DC issue that affects me most is jobs because a lot of people need jobs to go home, take care of their children, put cloths on their back, food in their mouth, shoes on their feet and take care of themselves. My best qualities are working, and math. My best friend would say I am . . . → Read More: Empower DC’s Summer of Youth
By Andria Swanson, on July 15th, 2012 
The Centennial of the Alexander Crummell School, a long-neglected historic landmark in the Ivy City community, was celebrated on Saturday, November 19, 2011. (Yes, this post is well after the fact, but certainly still relevant.) Empower DC released the Ivy City Neighborhood & Oral History Project, a book that features photos, excerpts from oral history interviews, and archival news clippings about one of DC’s most historic yet least known neighborhoods. The booklet will be distributed to participants, community members and libraries.
The reception was attended by many of the former Ivy City residents and alumni of Ivy City’s Alexander Crummell School. In 2002, several Crummell alumni played a key role, along with the Ivy City–Trinidad Civic Association, in winning historic landmark status for the Alexander Crummell School, which was built in 1911 and served as one of the District of Columbia’s first public elementary schools for black children until its closure in 1972. The Crummell alumni and current residents of the community share the goal of not only preserving the school but also having it renovated to serve as a recreation and workforce development center for the neighborhood, which currently lacks amenities of the sort.
Photos featured in the book demonstrate how Ivy City was a haven for middle- and working-class blacks during the District of Columbia’s more segregated past. The book also documents the efforts of the children and youth of Ivy City as they attempt to transform the abandoned Crummell School into a community center, including a photo of DC Mayor Adrian Fenty signing a pledge to renovate Crummell for community needs. “The book will be a resource for teachers, students and all DC residents, who can learn about this small but uniquely tight-knit community,” explains Empower DC Executive Director Parisa Norouzi. “This is the first known record of the community’s history.” The goal of the Ivy City Neighborhood and Oral History Project is to bring together the former and current residents who both have the best interest of the community at heart as well as to foster pride in the community through the sharing of oral history and personal stories.
In addition to the release of the Ivy City Neighborhood & Oral History Project book, the celebration was also an opportunity to screen the documentary Crummell School: Heart and Soul of the Community, which was produced by American University Anthropology student and Grassroots Media Project intern Sean Furmage.
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