Cambridge See the World
Donation protected
See The World Go Fund Me
Even your own neighborhood is a world undiscovered!
Introduction:
My name is Ilham Elazri. My friend Stephanie Guirand and I have been named 2020-2021 Equity Fellows of the Cambridge Equity Collaborative. Our project is called See The World. The mission of See the World is to create opportunities for kids and their families to travel locally, nationally, and internationally and to expand their realm of what is possible.
Founding Story:
We are both immigrants. We believe our experiences as immigrants to the United States has been an absolute privilege. Stephanie was born in Haiti. I, Ilham, was born in Morocco. We were both fortunate to migrate to the United States in our adolescence. For us, we know through many conversations over three decades now, that exposure to the vastness of the world at such an early age transformed us.
As visibly racialized immigrants, our families have experienced a great deal of difficulty and structural racism since arriving in the United States. In the United States, our families are working class. Too often, our parents worked the lowest tiered positions as nurses assistants, cleaners and gas station attendants. We feel compelled to share how humbling these positions were for our parents. They held professions such as nurses, teachers, and government administrators in our birth countries. Starting from the bottom in the United States often meant that we didn’t have the financial, material, and temporal means we were previously afforded in our middle class experiences back in our respective birth countries. However, both of us remain appreciative of the opportunities we have had because we landed in Cambridge, MA.
Having overcome the lack of knowledge of systems, resources, and other barriers including language and culture, we place a great deal of importance on the role of community support in our present successes. We owe a debt of gratitude to our community members here in Cambridge. We have identified these hurdles in our own experiences; we wish to lessen the burdens for other children and their families by expanding our trips to under-resourced families, starting with the K-Lo community. We find that See The World allows us to coordinate experiences where members of entire households are invited to take part and build memories together as a family.
The aims of See the World:
To make an interactive geography experience. Children will learn about and visit places in relation to places they already know.
To introduce children and families to new experiences and professions.
To open up the children's realm of possibility. The more things, places, and people children are exposed to, the more they will expand their vision of and for the world.
Story of Impact:
This our inaugural year, we are piloting the project idea and philosophy. We have taken on five participating families. All are visibly racialised (i.e. people of color). All students receive free or reduced school lunches. All of the parents are hourly wage earners.
Growing up, while my parents worked two or three jobs respectively, I spent my evenings and weekends at home watching television with my sisters instead of exploring museums, or national parks, or even the universities in Cambridge. Too often immigrant parents pay for their lack of knowledge of social and political systems in currency of time up front and dollars later in life for their children. As part of our project, we invite parents and guardians to participate in excursions with their families. It is sometimes difficult for low income families to justify spending money on excursions. Furthermore, it is difficult to justify taking the time off to spend with the family, when every hour of work is a necessity. We do not want parents to have to choose between paying their bills and spending time with their families. Our project provides a modest stipend at the end of each day’s participation. We want to use this stipend as an evaluation of our program. We want to see if providing this stipend will encourage a 100% participation rate. We are offering parents a $150 stipend for participation in each day of See The World events.
Our Projects
This year, we have designed five projects, they are: (1) The Scrapbook Project, (2) the scavenger hunt, (3) the movie night, (4) the camping trip and (5) the passport project. All of these events are co-sponsored by Kennedy-Longfellow School. The scrapbook project gives families the materials to track their memories together as family. Families are given instant cameras and arts and crafts materials. The scavenger hunt is a collaborative project that is open to the entire Kennedy Longfellow School. This event was co-sponsored by the East Cambridge Business Association, the Cambridge Historical Commission, the Cambridge Arts Council, and countless community members and small businesses. The movie night is a collaboration between Starlight and See The World, this is a free event open to families with children. The camping trip is a collaboration with the Urban Outdoors Association, we will take our families on their first overnight camping trip to a Massachusetts State park. The passport project provides the funding and support for families to acquire passports. These are important identification materials and provides a great opportunity to literally See The World.
Call to Action:
Please take the time to support this project. All proceeds from this fundraiser will go entirely into supporting these projects and these families. Feel free to reach out to the Kennedy Longfellow School and / or the Cambridge Equity Collaborative to verify this project. Thank you in advance for your support.
See The World is Fiscally sponsored by the AMINGA - Youth Sports Development Program a tax exempt 501c3. Learn more at www.cambridgeseetheworld.org.
Even your own neighborhood is a world undiscovered!
Introduction:
My name is Ilham Elazri. My friend Stephanie Guirand and I have been named 2020-2021 Equity Fellows of the Cambridge Equity Collaborative. Our project is called See The World. The mission of See the World is to create opportunities for kids and their families to travel locally, nationally, and internationally and to expand their realm of what is possible.
Founding Story:
We are both immigrants. We believe our experiences as immigrants to the United States has been an absolute privilege. Stephanie was born in Haiti. I, Ilham, was born in Morocco. We were both fortunate to migrate to the United States in our adolescence. For us, we know through many conversations over three decades now, that exposure to the vastness of the world at such an early age transformed us.
As visibly racialized immigrants, our families have experienced a great deal of difficulty and structural racism since arriving in the United States. In the United States, our families are working class. Too often, our parents worked the lowest tiered positions as nurses assistants, cleaners and gas station attendants. We feel compelled to share how humbling these positions were for our parents. They held professions such as nurses, teachers, and government administrators in our birth countries. Starting from the bottom in the United States often meant that we didn’t have the financial, material, and temporal means we were previously afforded in our middle class experiences back in our respective birth countries. However, both of us remain appreciative of the opportunities we have had because we landed in Cambridge, MA.
Having overcome the lack of knowledge of systems, resources, and other barriers including language and culture, we place a great deal of importance on the role of community support in our present successes. We owe a debt of gratitude to our community members here in Cambridge. We have identified these hurdles in our own experiences; we wish to lessen the burdens for other children and their families by expanding our trips to under-resourced families, starting with the K-Lo community. We find that See The World allows us to coordinate experiences where members of entire households are invited to take part and build memories together as a family.
The aims of See the World:
To make an interactive geography experience. Children will learn about and visit places in relation to places they already know.
To introduce children and families to new experiences and professions.
To open up the children's realm of possibility. The more things, places, and people children are exposed to, the more they will expand their vision of and for the world.
Story of Impact:
This our inaugural year, we are piloting the project idea and philosophy. We have taken on five participating families. All are visibly racialised (i.e. people of color). All students receive free or reduced school lunches. All of the parents are hourly wage earners.
Growing up, while my parents worked two or three jobs respectively, I spent my evenings and weekends at home watching television with my sisters instead of exploring museums, or national parks, or even the universities in Cambridge. Too often immigrant parents pay for their lack of knowledge of social and political systems in currency of time up front and dollars later in life for their children. As part of our project, we invite parents and guardians to participate in excursions with their families. It is sometimes difficult for low income families to justify spending money on excursions. Furthermore, it is difficult to justify taking the time off to spend with the family, when every hour of work is a necessity. We do not want parents to have to choose between paying their bills and spending time with their families. Our project provides a modest stipend at the end of each day’s participation. We want to use this stipend as an evaluation of our program. We want to see if providing this stipend will encourage a 100% participation rate. We are offering parents a $150 stipend for participation in each day of See The World events.
Our Projects
This year, we have designed five projects, they are: (1) The Scrapbook Project, (2) the scavenger hunt, (3) the movie night, (4) the camping trip and (5) the passport project. All of these events are co-sponsored by Kennedy-Longfellow School. The scrapbook project gives families the materials to track their memories together as family. Families are given instant cameras and arts and crafts materials. The scavenger hunt is a collaborative project that is open to the entire Kennedy Longfellow School. This event was co-sponsored by the East Cambridge Business Association, the Cambridge Historical Commission, the Cambridge Arts Council, and countless community members and small businesses. The movie night is a collaboration between Starlight and See The World, this is a free event open to families with children. The camping trip is a collaboration with the Urban Outdoors Association, we will take our families on their first overnight camping trip to a Massachusetts State park. The passport project provides the funding and support for families to acquire passports. These are important identification materials and provides a great opportunity to literally See The World.
Call to Action:
Please take the time to support this project. All proceeds from this fundraiser will go entirely into supporting these projects and these families. Feel free to reach out to the Kennedy Longfellow School and / or the Cambridge Equity Collaborative to verify this project. Thank you in advance for your support.
See The World is Fiscally sponsored by the AMINGA - Youth Sports Development Program a tax exempt 501c3. Learn more at www.cambridgeseetheworld.org.
Organizer
See The World
Organizer
Cambridge, MA
