NY2NO 2014 SUMMER TRIPS TO PHILADELPHIA

Life Do Grow

 This summer, NY2NO traveled to North-Central Philadelphia to work on Life Do Grow farm in collaboration with the Philadelphia Urban Creators. Two trips went from July 1st-19th. We would like to thank PUC for welcoming us into their community! We had a great time, stay tuned for updates on our upcoming day trips this fall.

 

 

Group one organizers

Group two organizers

Summer group two!

Courtesy of Calvin Schneider

Summer group one!

Courtesy of Calvin Schneider

Courtesy of Calvin Schneider

New York 2 New Orleans

General Mission/Who We Are: 

NY2NO is a youth led organization established to create a network of young people who are interested in organizing and mobilizing across New York City. NY2NO works in solidarity with those most affected by the social, racial, and economic inequalities in both New York, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. We break down barriers and work together to combat racism and classism in the hopes of moving towards a more egalitarian society.

A Brief History:

Although many NY2NO organizers went on their first trips down to New Orleans with their schools, the students realized that they wanted to create a coalition separate and free from the usual administrative power of adults and that brought together youth from across New York City. Following this demand NY2NO was formed as a student organization under which trips to New Orleans could be organized. Now it has become a network of New York City High School students interested in organizing and mobilizing around the parallel struggles of New Orleans and their own communities. 

Trips:

Since the summer of 2007, we have organized over 35 New Orleans brigades, bringing over 1000 high school students back to New York with organizing skills, a greater understanding of the injustices within America, and ideas about how they can create change and combat these issues. 
During the trips we do farm work alongside the employees of Our School at Blair Grocery and youth from the Lower Ninth Ward. Some of what we have done in the past includes composting, gutting houses, building fences, doing community outreach, attending community meetings, planting, and cooking. In addition to manual labor, we create and participate in workshops about a variety of issues including: racism, classism, gender inequity, food injustice, environmental injustice, movement building, and more. We explore these issues within New Orleans and then continue to analyze them within our broader New York City communities.

How We Operate:

Whether it be in an organizational meeting or in a debrief, NY2NO operates through consensus decision-making in order to eliminate a minority of people who will be displeased by a majority rule decision. This also encourages groups thinking and feeling together in a free space called the People's Circle. NY2NO believes that by using consensus they are creating a model of participatory democracy and focusing on the constant forward process of the entire group. In order to ensure that decisions are made by consensus, a member of the People's Circle takes on the role of facilitator to mediate the emotions, decisions and progress of the discussions. When a decision cannot be made because a group or individual within the circle feels strongly enough to not stand aside on the issue, the decision is discussed further until a consensus can be reached.

Fiscal Sponsor:

Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization/Pastors for Peace is an ecumenical agency whose mission is to help forward the struggles of oppressed peoples for justice and self-determination and they are also NY2NO's wonderful Fiscal Sponsor. They provide our 5o1c3 official non-profit status that enables us to receive tax exempt donations, and they also facilitate our finances. IFCO/Pastors for Peace have always been incredibly supportive of all of our visions and projects and without them none of our work would be possible.

GYO: 

In New York City we have created a group called GYO, which stands for Growing Youth Organizers. Growing Youth Organizers is an autonomous group of New York 2 New Orleans organizers engaging in reflective dialogue and direct action. GYO is a program designed to enable the development of students’ facilitation and organizing skills, as well as foster a deeper critical analysis of issues in New York and New Orleans, though this program focuses mostly on work within NYC. Students work together on tasks such as: outreach proposals and projects, designing curriculum, planning fundraisers, and refining structures of our service-learning brigades.

February Trip 2014

We had a great week long trip at Our School at Blair Grocery! Here are some cool pictures of us working and leaning a lot.

Miranda and Turner 

Rupert! 

Feeding Time 

Chloe and the Compost 

Getting ready for the Levee Tour 

Compost Crew

Sage collected flowers to make handmade paper!

Weeding!

Lunch Time 

A view of the depleted Bayou 

Eldrich and Marly hard at work

- Hannah Sklar 

Summer Pre-College Fair at Columbia Secondary School

We had the pleasure of attending the Summer Pre-College Fair at Columbia Secondary School and got to meet some great kids!

- Hannah Sklar 

Food Justice Summer 2013

Food Justice Summer 2013

This summer was another success, while we traveled down to New Orleans to learn about food justice and work hard on the farm! We were taught how to perform a number of tasks on the farm, like how to cultivate arugula with Evan (the volunteer farmer). We were also exposed to great lessons in the class room, taught by our fellow organizers.

Here are some great moments from both trips:

Taking a levee tour with Turner and the crew

Celebrating Mila's 15th Birthday

Jackson cooking a killer July 4th dinner

So much eggplant seeding!

OSBG received it first pig, Rupert!!!!! 

We created a success guide to farming at OSBG

Chloe being a boss and taking out the trash

Sana happily prepares dinner

Griffin doing a great job on compost chore

Marly trying to do some weed whacking

The till team

Matt and Eldrich suit up to weed around the bee hives

On the last day, the tractor that Turner and Rob built arrived! 

For our last meal in New Orleans we were treated to some undercooked chicken, courtesy of Pablo
- Hannah Sklar 

GYO Projects: March 19th-24th, 2013

This has been a very exciting week for NY2NO! We mainly focused on the planning and execution of our newly created Backyard Farm. On Tuesday, the Backyard Farm Resource Committee met and helped plan out this season's harvest.

Vera, Em, Danielle G, Sana, Pablo, and Greg researching plants that grow well together in the New York spring climate.

On Saturday, some GYO participants attended the 29th Annual Green Thumb GrowTogether Event. We attended workshops on pest management, trellising, permaculture, grant writing, and many other skills necessary to the success of our backyard farm!

 Danielle G. searching through the pile of free seeds for insect repelling flowers.

 Sana, Jenny, Danielle R., and Em showing off their free t-shirts, workshop materials, and sandwiches!

Em and Mila and their water bottle hydroponic systems! 

After the event, a bunch of us headed back to Brooklyn to work on the farm. 

Some of our seeds!  

NY2NOers placing the beds in the ground above the weed-block  

Jenny and Danielle R. posin' with the beds!

Lastly, Danielle R., Danielle G., and Em met with Steve Pampinella today in order to discuss GYO/99Rise's involvement with NY's Fair Elections. There will be a training to learn more on April 27th, 2013 and a direct action shortly after! Check out our blog for more information on NY2NO's current projects and future aspirations!

-Em Hirsch

GYO and our new farm!

Hey y'all, the last time you heard from us we were on our February Brigade in New Orleans. Don't worry though, now that we're back in NYC we're still working. Today was our first Growing Youth Organizers (GYO) meeting since our trip. The purpose of GYO is to create a safe space for us to meet and discuss our goals and projects. Basically, we are bringing back what we learned in New Orleans and applying it to our own community in New York.

Our latest project is our new GYO backyard farm being built at Danielle Gamady's house. This farm is the embodiment of youth empowerment, growth and learning. As we take on the responsibility of running our own small-scale farm, we are learning how to become self-sufficient leaders and creating a productive outlet from everyday distractions.

Thanks to the peeps, Sean and Jesse, at Home Depot for the lumber

starting to build beds for our soon to be growing plants 

gettin' work done with the hammer.

Are you excited? 'Cause Haley is!

We triumph the success of our first few days working on our farm!

Wish us luck!

-Alicia Russo