CATALYST Task 1 Response Thread (September 06, 2011)

All responses to the CATALYST Webinar Questions (Task 1) will need to be posted in this thread.

Webinar Questions

• What is an issue that is largely affecting or present in your community?
  
• Who is affected by this issue?
  
• What is causing this issue?
  
• Are there any existing projects addressing this issue? If so, what projects? If not, why do you think that is?
  
• What are your current commitments this Fall Semester?

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Please answer each question as detailed as possible.

All responses are due by the end of this month (September 30, 2011) by midnight.

Extensions will only be granted on a emergency need basis.

he main issue that id going on in our communitee is that people. women and men range of nationilism,age and gender are paying to much for their taxes because taxes are one of the few things that must be done. since they must be done people have to pay for them and many of these people dont have enough money to pay for them to be done.
yes their is something being done aboout it is vita where they do the taxes for the low income people for free. luckily i am in charge of it this year.
thsi years commitments iis to be a good vita coordinator and teach the rest of my scholors about service learning.

What is an issue that is largely affecting or present in your community?
• 940 Homeless Children in the Public School District. They live in a car, a temporary living condition, a condemned house, tents, or in a park. They are unfortunate and deserve education to change their living style.

Who is affected by this issue?
• A group of children that are homeless in the community. Eventually everyone, when children don’t learn, their burden on society continues into their later life. Nothing ever gets better if nothing is ever done.

What is causing this issue?
• Poor parenting, the economic downturn, mental illness, lack of love, family breakdowns, law enforcement issues, drinking or drug problems with family or children, and abandonment.

Are there any existing projects addressing this issue? If so, what projects? If not, why do you think that is?
• Yes, some preliminary homeless services, but the full problem is hard to solve because the scope of the problem is so large for the local community. The current services are very limited.

What are your current commitments this Fall Semester?
• I have joined the Youth Commission to discover and to be more involved in the town’s concerns and challenges.
• I am taking college classes that consume a lot of time.
• I am the official volleyball scorebook for home games.
• I am involved in a local Key Club.
• I am in a form of ASB for my school.

What is an issue that is largely affected or present in your community?
 Environmentalism is a big issue that affects my community. There are many logging companies and fishing groups hurting the environment and only six months ago people realized this issue and are now trying to protect our environment. New ways of getting electricity such as building dams are killing the population of fish which affects the prosperity of our environment.
Who is affected by this issue?
 The environment is affected by this issue. Animals that live in the forest and in the rivers are being mistreated. The trees were being taken down by clear-cutting and non-sustainable logging which takes away the homes of the animals.
What is causing this issue?
 Major lumber corporations and others who are benefiting from logging and building a hydropower dam. One specific example of how they affect the community is the Iron Gate Dam that is killing the salmon run in the Klamath River. It has affected mainly the fishermen, tribes, and the farmers in the area.
Are there any existing projects addressing this issue? If so, what projects? If not, why do you think that is?
 Yes, there are projects addressing this issue and they are: Environmental Impact Statement, Environmentalism, EPIC and OCFR.
What are your current commitments this fall semester?
[list][*] I am taking AP Classes.
[list][*] I am the VP for Junior Class Student Body.
[list][*] I am part of school clubs
[list][*] I'm on the varsity soccer team and doing other sports.
[list][*] I think I will also be joining the Teen Court program

•What is an issue that is largely affecting or present in your community?
Teenagers do not have enough options to keep themselves busy afterschool hours, so they turn to drugs and alcohol.

•Who is affected by this issue?
Teenagers, the community members who lose access to their parks because kids are smoking in them, taxpayers.

•What is causing this issue?
Lack of options available afterschool, along with lack of education to teenagers & community members.

•Are there any existing projects addressing this issue? If so, what projects? If not, why do you think that is?
There is one current community coalition trying to address this issue, However the coalition is made up of mostly adults. They don't get much done because of financial strains as well as being caught up in meeting grant requirements for the federal government.

•What are your current commitments this Fall Semester?
My current commitments are:
-Being President of an afterschool organization (various different campaigns and projects!)
-Teen Court Student Attorney
-Working part time
-Being on a community drug coalition
-Working on a soon to be national documentary
-CATALYST !!!!

* What is an issue that is largely affecting or present in your community?
The issue in my community is bullying and gang related violence. This was the same issue last year and it's still an issue. I feel like even though there are many students affected by this, I want to just help as many people as I can.

* Who is affected by this issue?
The ones affected by this issue is usually the young kids from the transition of middle school to high school. They are the ones who are most susceptible to influence and I think they are the ones we should be focusing.

* What is causing this issue?
The older students are usually at fault because they are the ones who recruit the younger students. They have all the power to make them drop out of school and choose the wrong path. WE just need to balance that out with students who can influence them to go on better routes.

* Are there any existing projects addressing this issue? If so, what projects? If not, why do you think that is?
They do have that Big Brother Big Sister program but that is the only one I know. i don't know why there aren't any more resources in our community. I think people don;t know how to confront the issue and a lot of kids don;t listen to adults and they need more one on one talks with other students around their age to feel more comfortable.

* What are your current commitments this Fall Semester?
To do well in AP classes
Write a great personal statement
Win City in Girls Golf
Help the school as much as I can as Student Body Vice President
To help parents and students and student ambassador
To be more involved with the community as secretary of local council
To get Link Crew more activeness

Task #1
1. An issue that is affecting my community is the drop out crisis; in the West Fresno area especially, is has become an epidemic. So many of the young students in my area are not finishing high school and are thus not getting the education they need to succeed in the future. These students are going to be the future, so if they are not preparing themselves for the workforce in any way, Fresno is going to crumble into shambles; this may be an exaggeration, but a possible one nonetheless. We need to prepare students for college and the workforce in my region, not doing so would mean Fresno would become worst then it is today. And today is it already bad, we have the highest concentration of poverty in the nation, out running New Orleans. Clearly, if the students in my region are not getting the education they need, we will have no one to make the sound decisions that will lead Fresno into a better place.
2. This issue effects everyone in my region. What one person does, really does matter. This issue has a domino affect, affecting everyone and everything; if these students are not finishing high school, thus will hurt themselves, everyone around them, and thus their community as a while. This is because they will not be productive members of society, contributing to the better cause, instead they will make Fresno a worst place to live. And thus if they are making Fresno a worst place to live, they will inherently harm the entire community. Most of all, because there is a large number of students dropping out, it will be even worst for Fresno.
3. There may be many things that are causing this issue. While I cannot delve into the minds of those who are dropping out, I can safely hypothesize that they are doing so because a) they do not think that what they are learning will help them in the future, b) they think it's too hard, c) they have no support system pushing them, or d) they just don't want to learn, instead they want to do “other things”.
4. There are many different programs trying to target this issue: mentoring programs, upward bound programs, and such. It is great what many of these programs are doing, however, after looking at it further, I've come to the conclusion that these programs are not targeting the people that need to be targeted. Many of these programs help out those that already want to go to college, already want to do more with their lives and just need the extra help. What about those who are not getting help, those that do not really care? There is no real program for those type of students, no real outreach to them and thus, I feel like much isn't being done. There doesn't need to be a million different programs, there just needs to be one really good one.
5. My schedule this year is pretty full. I have a part-time job now, which I go to everyday after school until about 6:30 or 7:00, along with some Saturdays. Along with that, I am juggling my four AP classes, on-campus clubs, and other councils that I am involved in, taking up most of my weekends, and then I have Forensics tournaments two Saturdays a month, thus making my schedule pretty tight. But it's all about balance and I'm doing decent so far.

Webinar Questions
• What is an issue that is largely affecting or present in your community?
One large issue that is currently affecting my community is the fact that low income families don't have enough money to have tax preparers do their taxes for them, which in the end starts to have them in debt with the IRS, because they had not done their taxes that year.
• Who is affected by this issue?
Low income families
• What is causing this issue?
Its hard to live in Santa Barbara as it is, and people have issues with money a lot.
• Are there any existing projects addressing this issue? If so, what projects? If not, why do you think that is?
Yes their is our Dons Net Café own venture called VITA in which we prepare taxes for free fow low income families.
• What are your current commitments this Fall Semester?
My current Commitments for this year is that
*Currently in 3 different R.O.P. classes
*Chief Technical Officer of the Dons Net Café
*My own personal internship at a web design studio
*Running a bike club around Santa Barbara which promotes bike riding and fixes bikes for free

-What is an issue that is largely affecting or present in your community?
That would be violence (street safety) because there has been much bullying and murdering in the city I live in.

-Who is affected by this issue?
Basically everybody is affected by this issue, but especially teens and young adults because most of the bullying involve them.

-What is causing this issue?
The cause of this issue can be substance abuse, stress (some people have so much stress that they do not know how to release it properly, so they sometimes do things that harm others to release their stress), and peer pressure.

-Are there any existing projects addressing this issue? If so, what projects? If not, why do you think that is?
There are existing projects addressing this issue; the ones I can think of right now are Beacon After School Program (keeps kids to stay in school), and Gay Straight Alliance (educate the community about respecting each other no matter what their gender orientations are).

-What are your current commitments this Fall Semester?
AP classes, officer of clubs, Girl's Golf Team, and college application.