15 Year Anniversary Campaign

 




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“I believe YPP’s strategy is one of the coolest in the world” (long time YPP donor)

 

Dear Friend and Supporter,

This year marks the 15th anniversary year of YPP’s founding, when Omo and Taba Moses, Khari Milner and a handful of 8th graders linked their lives together and forged relationships to catalyze a movement of young people armed with math literacy as their tool to provide every child access to a 21st century education. Since then YPP has

 

  • Provided math literacy workshops to over 7,000 k-8 grade children
  • Trained over 2,000 high school and college math literacy workers
  • Provided at least 60,000 hours of math instruction to young people across the country

 

We have watched, cheered, encouraged, pushed and pulled as some of the early YPP students, then 11, 12, 13 years old have grown to become organizational leaders – trainers, site directors, coordinators - in YPP sites in Jackson, Chicago, Greater Boston, and Los Angeles. We are celebrating:

  • Hector Acevedo, who began YPP in Cambridge, MA as a 6th grader and who as a student at Hamilton College launched the new student led YPP@collegiate network, and Albert Sykes, Lead Organizer for Jackson, MS who began as an outspoken middle school student and is initiating new strategies around organizing for education policy and advocacy in the state of MS.

  • April Dortch, Selledia Ball, Marquise Lowe, Ebone Ball, Kecia Tyce, and Kevin Edmondson, YPP Mississippians since middle school, and now directors of programs in Jackson, Boston/Cambridge, and Los Angeles.

  • Javier Maisonet, and Charlenne DeLeon Cuevas, YPP Chicagoans in high school and college, and now Co-Directors of the Chicago YPP site.

  • Naama Lewis, currently a MA and PhD student in mathematics and math education at Southern Illinois University, originally from Gary Indiana, a YPP Chicagoan throughout college who coordinates YPP in Eldorado, a coal mining community in Southern IL.

  • Daneiris Heredia-Perez and Heleena Criswell, from Cambridge, YPP members since middle and high school, who are harnessing their creative talents in media and event planning to help take YPP to a new level.

  • Bruce Martin, London Hardy and Chad Milner, from Cambridge who have been with YPP from the very beginning passing on the YPP family spirit, taking new generations of young people under their wings, nurturing the next generation of YPP leadership. 

 

We are so proud of all of them, and thankful for their tremendous work and contributions.

 

2010 has been a landmark year for YPP:

 

  • We launched the We The People Tour to enter into the national conversation about quality education for all children.
  • We hosted the Department of Education’s Youth Listening Tour stops in Boston, MA and Jackson, MS. In Boston we partnered with 7 local youth organizations and brought together a cultural cross-section of 100 students to share ideas and voice concerns.
  • We began a pilot of new Algebra 1 Labs for middle school students in Chicago and Boston.
  • We completed our 5 year $2.4 million National Science Foundation grant to develop trainers and Flagway ™ games for 3rd to 6th graders.
  • We began a new 3-year $1.2 million National Science Foundation grant to “Bridge Math Literacy and Digital Media Creation”.
  • We traveled to Shaw University in North Carolina to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of SNCC, and left with a renewed sense of our historical legacy and our role in carrying the work forward and,
  • Completed a year long business planning process to strengthen our organization.

 

Students in YPP are engaged in complex work that requires them to develop personally, socially, and academically, and enables them to build a sense of themselves as learners, teachers, leaders, and organizers who positively impact their communities.  Their work sends a message of promise. Their efforts are an antidote to practices that marginalize young people in vulnerable communities, and an antidote to fear and violence in these communities. It is worth the time to pay attention to the words of Hope, a math literacy worker from Greater Boston as she reflects on her YPP experiences:

 

“ Cambridge is small. Everywhere I go I am guaranteed to see one of my kids.  The idea of math is always rough, kids come with the attitude like ‘math, are you serious’, ‘I could be playing basketball!’ I love that they see a part of me when I am trying to teach them.  It does something to my soul, that I can teach them and have them learn something for me.  I worked with one student who did not know how to multiply, so that’s an example of the kind of flexibility I had to learn, to help him and push him along.  After three weeks he said he could do it without any help.  He ran up to me with the paper and said, “check it, check it, check it!”  He had it all right, and asked if he could take it home. That was the joy of my life.  I love that, that I can help other people, especially younger kids, and have bonds with them.” (Hope Pina, was a high school math literacy worker from 2008-2010. She is currently a freshman at Lassalle University. She wants to be a chef)

 

As we look to the coming year we are excited about:

  • Building local partnerships in critical communities like the Chicago Woodlawn Promise Zone schools, the Boston Promise Neighborhood and New Orleans, LA.
  • Strengthening our work in 25 total after school programs in Chicago, Greater Boston, Jackson, and Los Angeles
  •  Providing afterschool support to Algebra Project cohorts in Washington DC, Brooklyn, NY, Ann Arbor Michigan, and El Dorado, IL.
  • Increasing and strengthening our math training staff and programs.
  •  Launching training programs in computational literacy and media

 

We want to thank you again for being a part of our network. We know that this is work that must be done by the young people. We also know that we cannot do it alone, and we value and appreciate every contribution of time, resources, and support that we receive. Join us in celebration of our work. This year, we hope to raise $50,000 from our year-end campaign. Please make a donation to YPP today.

 

May you and your family have a joyous and prosperous New-Year. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Maisha Moses, M.A. Mathematics

YPP Co-Director for Training and Curriculum & Learning

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Mailing Address:
The Young People's Project
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Cambridge, Ma 02139