Praise for KIS: KEEPING IT SAFE!

Hello Each One Reach One,

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for coming to the school and speaking with the students. You were very informative and the kids seemed to really enjoy the presentation. They were very attentive and asked excellent questions. Through the various presentations that I have observed the students sit through, this was the first one where all of the group seemed interested in and enthusiastic about. The group participation was wonderful! I even learned something new (as I always do with your presentations).

I would really like you come back and discuss gang prevention and any other relevant topics that you have knowledge on that my students can benefit from. If you are available, we would love to have you back before the school year ends. My students can really benefit from anything that you are willing to teach them.

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge and experience with the students of Community School! We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Group Supervisor

Thoughts on a Graduation

Last Monday, five young men  walked down the corridor of the Juvenile Justice Center to the Community Room garbed in caps and gowns to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance. These young men are the Juvenile Justice Center Graduating Class of 2011. Each of them worked towards the completion of and obtained their GED through their participation in the Each One Reach One ADAPT GED Study Hall Program, Youth Guidance Center Improvement Committee Early Morning Studies Academy, and support of the SFUSD Woodside Learning Center teaching and counseling staff all supported by the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Department and Staff at the Juvenile Justice Center. It was a moment of celebration and success for all the system stakeholders and collaborating partners to come together with the families of these youth, teachers, probation officers, program staff, and community members to witness the cumulation of the past several months (even years) of  hard work.


The keynote speaker, former San Francisco Mayor, the Honorable Willie L. Brown Jr., addressed the young graduates. While Honorable Brown has spoken at gradations over the years, never had he addressed a group of graduates inside a lock down facility. The youth before him came from various backgrounds, had made choices that landed them in Juvenile Hall to complete their high school career, and shared one thing, they were all San Franciscans who were one of the first in their families to graduate from high school. Hon. Brown addressed the young men with humility and poise, sharing his life journey from Texas to San Francisco State University to Mayor of San Francisco all the while urging the young men to use their GED as a key to open up a world of possibility. Hon. Brown was followed by the youth valedictorian, Roger*, who had some words of wisdom, reflection, and hope to share with his peers, role models, and family.

Roger* spoke of his past and how he landed in Juvenile Hall without enough credits to graduate from high school, no interest in academia, and no desire to learn anything or even pick up a book. As a young boy, Roger's* older brother, his role model, was killed in gang violence. Soon, Roger* joined the gang and in spite of his parents warnings and attempts to turn his life around, he sought to become just like his older brother. It was not until he found himself on the maximum security unit at Juvenile Hall that he understood what his parents had been saying and he made a decision to longer be like his older brother. Rather, Roger* chose to enroll with Each One Reach One in the GED Program and simultaneously work with the Woodside Learning Center to see if he could earn the missing credits to earn his high school diploma while detained. He worked closely with his Each One Reach One study hall mentor and the teachers at the Woodside Learning Center to earn both his GED and High School Diploma during his detention. He did both! Once he completed his high school career, Roger* began taking online college courses through City College of San Francisco which he continues to take. Roger* spoke of using his education as a key to do something more with his life, to complete college, and make the world a better place. Roger is using his GED as the key that Willie Brown spoke of to open up a world of possibility!

At the end of Roger's* speech, I looked around as the crowd stood up and offered a standing ovation. Many eyes were moist, smiles spread across the room, and the crowd applauded a young man who had learned from the choices he made and chose to make a better future for himself because of the support and services provided for him while detained at Juvenile Hall through community based programs, system stakeholders, and staff at the Juvenile Justice Center.

The ceremony concluded with a drumming circle lead by teacher Wilfred Mark and the youth from another unit in the facility. The crowd danced and applauded to mark the importance of this rite of passage for the Graduating Class of 2011. Without the support of Each One Reach One, the Youth Guidance Center Improvement Center, SFJPD, SFUSD, and Institution Staff, these young people would not have had the opportunity to march proudly across the room to obtain their GED and graduate during their detention!

*The youth's name has been changed to protect his identity. All images are not of the youth discussed in this blog posting to protect the youth's identity and rights.

Don't miss this event!

WHERE THERE’S FAMILIA, THERE’S LOVE .

WHERE THERE’S FAMILIA, THERE’S LOVE

A One Act Play by EORO Youth

CHARACTERS:	VAGUE the POISON IVY Age: 9 years ACE the POISON OAK, VAGUE’s best friend Age: 17 years
SETTING:	You hear the wind crying, as the old withered trees sway side to side, thrashing each other as if knowing each other for a long time – brought them to a moment of regret and loneliness and ambition to sway far away to life and ease… Old tumbleweeds still stumble through their way, in an “abandoned garden” when nights never cry.
TIME:	5:25 in the afternoon, in a summer breeze
AT RISE:	Coming back from an exhausted day of being in the garden, just trying to make it though another day.                     ACE

What you mean you got better things to do?

VAGUE

Yes man, I got better things to do…I’m tired of doing da same things over and over again.  I’m tired of just standing here…”doin’ nuthin’”…  Just watching da days go by and not doing something positive—

ACE (interrupting)

(Surprised) “Positive,” huh?  (chuckles to himself)…since when did you start thinking positive?

VAGUE

(Smooth and sincere)  Since da day I decided to be different, since da day I decided to be myself, since da day “I realized” how much pain I cause da ones who never gave up on me, but I gave up on them…and that day is today, Ace.

ACE

(Confused) What…?  All of a sudden you just turnin’ sof’ on me?  All of a sudden you just…started regretting da things you once “never cared about”?  Come on now Vague, stop talkin’ like you lost you’ petals, man…

VAGUE

(Straightforward)  Is not that I lost my petals, Ace…I finally realize what I want now!  And that’s to be with my family.  I’m tired of this wildlife thang, I’m tired of everything this life has to offer, and I’m tired of hurting my own kind…it’s time fo’ me to go where I belong…with my family.

ACE

What!  Now you want to go back wit’ yo’ family!  The family that wasn’t there fo’ you when you really needed them.  When times were dry, I was da one who put chu on wit’ some drops that no one else could’ve.  I was there fo’ Vague, me and you been through da worse.  Even when times felt it was me and you against the world… remember?

VAGUE

Is not chu, Ace…is just…

ACE (interrupting)

 (Angry) Then what is it then?!!  Remember Vague, I’m da one who made you, if it wasn’t fo’ me, you probably wouldn’t even be here!

VAGUE

This is what I’m talkin’ about man, I’m tired of listening and doing things that are wrong and that causes a lot of pain to innocent plants…is time fo’ me to be myself, and do the things I want to do.

ACE

(Angry)  NO!  You can’t…

VAGUE (interrupting)

No I can’t WHAT?

ACE

You can’t LEAVE!  Because you know what my plans are, my plan to become a family that is big and known fo’ its loyalty…

VAGUE

(Sad)  You ain’t the only one that has a dream.  I have a dream, too…but all my life I been livin’ a lie, and it’s time to look at reality fo’ what it really is…and stop hiding my problems behind this lifestyle…

ACE (interrupting)

After all we been through this is how you give back to da hands that feeds?!!  I put all my trust on you and you know I rose up without a family…this is how you finna do me?

VAGUE

Nah man, you know I got mad love fo’ you…but doin’ this all my life, it ain’t finna take me nowhere.  But don’t take it as if I’m betrayin’ you, man…that’s sumthin’ I would never do…

ACE

(Angry)  But you doin’ it right now, Vague!  You finna leave me now, leave me like how they brought me to this world…“alone”…alone wit’ no family!

VAGUE

Is not that I’m doin’ it on purpose, Ace.  I just want chu to understand that I want to be wit’ my family.  My family that planted me and watched over me every time I’ve drooped as a little stem.  I wanna feel that love again…that love that words can’t describe, but an intense feeling that you carry deep inside you…a feeling of family.  But all I want from you Ace…is your blessing…the blessing of more than just a friend, but a root brother…

ACE (tearing)

Well…I’m sorry Vague for getting mat at chu.  Is just hard for me to let go, because all I have in this world that I consider family…is you.  I may not fully understand what cho’ feelings are, because I never had a family…and I never felt the love that a mother provides for her lil stems.  But just know that I’ll be here fo’ you…and know that you got my blessings, my root brother.

VAGUE

(Sincerely) I thank you, my true friend…but Ace, just know you always consider family… no matter what, brother.

(They exchange a brotherly embrace.)

THE END.

EORO Founder Authors Chapter in Book!

Each One Reach One's Executive Director and Founder, Robin Sohnen has authored a chapter in the book Challenging the Prison Industrial Complex Activism, Arts, and Educational Alternatives. Ms. Sohnen authored the chapter entitled:  EORO: Playwriting and Community Activism as Redemption and Prevention.

The book boldly and eloquently contributes to the argument against the prison system in the United States, these provocative essays offer an ideological and practical framework for empowering prisoners instead of incarcerating them. Experts and activists who have worked within and against the prison system join forces here to call attention to the debilitating effects of a punishment-driven society and offer clear-eyed alternatives, emphasizing working directly with prisoners and their communities.

The volume offers rhetorical and political analyses of police culture, the so-called drug war, media coverage of crime stories, and the public school-to-prison pipeline. The collection also includes case studies of successful prison arts and education programs in Michigan, California, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania that provide creative and intellectual resources typically denied to citizens living behind bars. Writings and

artwork created by prisoners in such programs richly enhance the volume.

The National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) has announced that Challenging the Prison-Industrial Complex is one of the winners of their 2010 PASS Award, one of the most prestigious awards of its kind in the nation.

Here is a link to the Award page: http://www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/about/award-pass.html.

Be sure to pick up your copy today!