Vol. 4
January 2022
The Future is US exists to fight for Galveston youth through community voice so future generations can meet their full potential.
A look back at 2021 and looking forward to 2022!
The Future is US was busy in 2021, year 3 of our 6-year grant! We shared our mission and vision with people locally and nationally, won awards, grew in numbers and capacity, and faced challenges that we came together to overcome.
2021
TFIU YPAC Lead Advocates
Our Youth Lead Advocates Toniesha Martinez and Toby Agnew and Parent Lead Advocates Latrina Jones and the late Julenne Brown were successful in their first year in their lead roles! Our Lead Advocates have become ingrained and active in the efforts of TFIU, speaking at GISD Board meetings, attending community meetings, leading their respective YPAC meetings, organizing community outreach events, developing the website, and more to support community change. We are happy and excited to welcome Clara Miller as a new Lead Parent Advocate!
TFIU Presentations
The team was busy this year sharing information about The Future is US and our efforts to dismantle the school to prison pipeline, presenting at virtual conferences, local town halls, meetings, and events! Check out Vol.2 of our newsletter to watch our presentations at the Young Minds Matter Conference: Healing, Justice, and Connection for Mental Wellbeing and American Public Health Association 2021 Annual Meeting and Expo.
Community
The Future is US has begun working with new partners and community members to influence positive change in the community! With Galveston's Own Farmer's Market and Noche Berry's Salon, we collected school supplies for our Back To School Event with Noche' Berrys Salon, Communities in Schools, Nia Cultural Center, and Club 68 were over 140 students received school supplies and 70+ students had their hair cut, styled, and braided the day before school started! With Nia Cultural Center we gave out free books to families at the Cedar Terrace Reunion and had the opportunity to be involved with the Juneteenth Legacy Project! With SMART Family Literacy, Books Like US was born, connecting GISD elementary students and their teachers with free books that are culturally representative for their home and classroom libraries!
Large donations!
The John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian Medicine at The University of Texas Medical Branch noticed the need for community change and donated a large number of supplies to The Future is US to support community outreach events. We too received a large donation of office and school supplies from UTMB's Nursing Education Advancement Resources (NEAR) department!
'Equity and Access for All' Project
Through a partnership with Causeway Galveston and GISD, the policy brief developed by the Policy Task Force was included in a grant proposal that won funding from Mental Health America (MHA), resulting in the “Equity and Access for All” project. Through this grant, a district wide equity audit is being done to identify strengths and needs in the district as they relate to meeting student needs, specifically district discipline, access to services/programs, mental health and social emotional learning influences, district personnel, and teacher quality broken down by subpopulation and school. With these results and through involvement and leadership from the community through the development of an Equity Task Force composed of community members, teachers, students, and GISD administration, a district-wide racial equity plan will be developed and recommended to the GISD Board Members in hopes that it will be implemented. The purpose of this grant will actualize our commitment to establishing practices and policies that promote equity among GISD students and schools and develop a positive climate that embraces diversity and promotes positive education and health outcomes for all youth.
Latrina Jones, Lead Parent Advocate was designated by the Nia Cultural Center as a Distinguished Elder Award on the final and 7th day of Kwanzaa.
Bianca Obinyan, our Policy Task Force Coordinator won the US Public Health Service Excellence in Public Health Award.
Semira Solomon, Policy Task Force team member, graduated with her Masters of Public Health from the University of Texas Medical Branch!
Sue Johnson, Parent Advisory Council coordinator, was voted as one of the Women of The Year at Galveston's 14th Annual Women's Conference!
June Pulliam, TFiU Design Team member, Executive Director of Fanfare! Lutheran Music Academy, was appointed chairperson of the City of Galveston's Family, Children, and Youth Board!
Toby Agnew, Youth Lead Advocate, was appointed as a board member for the City of Galveston Families, Children, and Youth Board!
Shanice Blair, Co-Coordinator, graduated with her Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Walden University! Shanice too is now a board member for the City of Galveston Families, Children, and Youth Board and Big Brothers Big Sister's Gulf Coast!
2022 is a year of community engagement through action, critical thinking and reading, and promoting policy!
Intellectual Emancipation Book Club resumes January 8 @11 am
The IEBC will continue with "How the Word is Passed" by Clint Smith. The next chapter we will discuss is entitled "'An open book, up under the sky': The Whitney Plantation"
Reading link:
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q7acfcaBQMSeYPYfdOK87YMcuh6RVP-4/view?usp=sharing)
Zoom Link:
TFIU-SNCC will launch in 2022!
TFIU's Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, will begin it's volunteering program this month! SNCC is preparing to participate in Galveston County's Gulf Coast Homeless Coalition. Additionally, SNCC will begin to schedule trainings for it's members and the community at large. The trainings will focus on educational justice, advocacy and activism, as well as comprehensive civics trainings for all ages, and much more! For more info, please send any and all inquiries to info@thefutureisus.co.
1000 Books Before Kindergarten!
Did you know that by reading and sharing stories with babies and young children not only helps their brain development, but strengthens your relationship with them? Research has found that reading and story telling:
Helps in developing children's brain development in concentration, focus, social skills and communication
Expands children's vocabulary! A 2019 study found that children that were regularly read to the 5years leading up to Kindergarten were exposed to 1.4 million more words.
A 2008 study found that children feel secure when read to and can support a solid parent-child relationship.
Sign up today for Rosenberg Library's Reading Challenge!
Youth With Purpose Art Contest
We are excited to announce Youth With Purpose Art Contest!
The submission form is available at http://tinyurl.com/YouthWithPurpose2021
In Galveston ISD, Black students are suspended 3 to 6 times more than their non-Black peers. Oftentimes these students' experiences go unseen and actively silenced. The Future is US Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and Nia Cultural Center, Inc are partnering to amplify youth voice through art that centers creative expressions of purpose. We believe our youth have value, that they should be seen and heard. We believe it is our responsibility as a community to work alongside our students and advocate for the equitable treatment they deserve.
Youth With Purpose Art Contest is accepting submissions midnight December 10, 2021 through 11:59pm January 10, 2022. Submissions are open to middle school and high school youth living or attending school in Galveston. This contest will feature two $100 gift cards, one for the winning middle school (grades 5th - 8th) artist and one for winning high school (grades 9th - 12th) artist.
Submissions can include any two-dimensional visual art (photograph, drawing, or painting) and must be uploaded to this form as a jpeg or png in a file size not to exceed 1GB.
Soul Food Sessions #1
After community members came to us about mental health needs for Black Galveston, we began to plan. Together with Noche Berry's Salon and the Nia Cultural Center, we are having our first Soul Food Session on January 13th about how we, as a community, can come together to improve the practices and mental health resources in Galveston. Due to the rise of COVID cases in Galveston County, we are transitioning to a fully virtual event. We still plan to have a comprehensive event full of dialogue, information, gifts and giveaways! The goal of this first session remains to get feedback from the community to move forward to come up with solutions.
Check out the TFIU Toolkit!
More Upcoming Dates!
Next Steps!
Please stay informed and up to date by visiting the following links:
Become a TFIU member and get FREE swag!
Black to the Future! (Black History Lessons)
Ralph Waldo Ellison was an American novelist, literary critic, and scholar best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote Shadow and Act (1964), a collection of political, social, and critical essays, and Going to the Territory (1986). The New York Times dubbed him "among the gods of America's literary Parnassus." A posthumous novel, Juneteenth, was published after being assembled from voluminous notes he left upon his death.
You're on your phone anyway...
Follow these accounts for continued education and exposure!
Culturally Competent Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
There are lots of ways you can make a difference in the community!
Take our Survey (QR Code below) and let us know what you think will make change in the school district.
Join the TFiU/NIA Book Club.
Become a TFiU Member!
Visit TFiU's Youtube.
GISD School Board Connection
Upcoming Board Meetings:
(All scheduled times of meetings are subject to, and often do, change without notice.)
In Memoriam
Julenne Andrisee Faith Brown
October 25, 1985 - August 29, 2021
