Creating Your Vision

What is your vision for the campus and/or community?

Banishing Every Assumption and Negative Stereotype (BEANS) is an after-school girls' group that we will be piloting for the 2008-09 school year in the Facing History public charter school in Manhattan. Our program strives to realize a safe space that enables critical thinking about gender roles in society and developing a voice with which to create community and challenge societally ingrained "isms." We plan to work with a New York City public high school and address issues of gender identity within the classroom. Our strongest potential resources are information and ideas that challenge the mainstream information that is projected through the New York public education system. Through an understanding of this mainstream information, we can utilize knowledge and ideas to create discussions that challenge their position in society. There are various resources, such as the Eugene Lang Student Union and the NYU Office of Community Service, to whom we can turn should we need additional institutional and campus community support. There is a vast array of organizations and individuals working for social justice whom we plan on networking with, learning from, and organizing in conjunction with should we need strength in numbers and/or knowledge.

The idea for this project was created in part as a response to the concerns voiced by our fellow female NYU peers regarding the inequalities and injustices women encounter in our society. We’re designing the curriculum for fall semester 2008-2009, but we anticipate continuing our involvement with the program until graduation. Our goal is to make the program self-sustainable so it will survive beyond the involvement of a given group of leaders and any grant.

Assessing Your Campus and Community

What campus/community problem does your blueprint address? What structures, practices and policies institutionalize the problem?

We plan to work with a New York City public high school and address issues of gender identity within the classroom. The public education system and curriculum is heavily influenced by conservative ideals regarding sex education, negative images of women, homophobia, and faulty perceptions of masculinity. These problems are institutionalized through limited curriculums, larger media culture, and pervasive corporate culture and advertising that targets teenagers, heavily affecting the experience of young, urban women.

What communities will you work with?

• Local community

Setting Goals and Deliverables

• Goal 1: Find and establish a relationship with a New York City public high school.
• Research potential schools.
• Establish contact with a variety of schools.
• Meet with administration and faculty of said schools.
• Finalize plans regarding a relationship with a school for fall semester 2008.
• Goal 2: Build and plan curriculum for after-school girls group.
• Establich overarching themes of curriculum.
• Assess the needs of the student body and larger school community.
• Make contact with organizations doing similar work.
• Gather and compile materials needed.
• Goal 3: Do outreach in school community and establish the group.
• Create a pitch to convey mission of our group to the girls and school community.
• Do presentations in classrooms.
• Establish time and location for meetings.
• Begin program and hold first meetings.

What is your primary approach? Leadership and Capacity Building

Why did you choose this approach?

In the United States' public educational system, student leadership is often limited and supressed by school curriculum and a lack of critical thinking.

Did you have secondary approaches? What are they?

Our secondary approach is "Advocacy and Activism" because we plan to utilize more traditional methods of social justice work to educate and inspire our students.

What will your tactics and activities be?

We plan on holding regular meetings with educational workshops as well as doing community building exercises and seminar style discussions. We are in the process of developing our curriculum and acquiring neccessary resouces.

Connecting Back to Vision

How does your strategy contribute to your vision for your campus and/or your community?

In-depth research and networking guarantees that we can effectively create a positive space on the high school campus. It also ensures that the group will be focused on the desires and needs of the young women we are working with, rather than a projection of our own assessments and beliefs.

Resources and skills you will need

What skills do you need for this approach?

Discussion leading skills, workshop leading skills, fundraising skills, conflict mediation skills, crisis management skills, great dancing skills, networking savvy.