Our city is changing; our society is changing. How can we ensure that Indianapolis will become inclusive and equitable? One thing we know: our youth are our future leaders and citizens.
The zeitgeist of education in our city wagers numbers over
names, and test scores over community, talent, passion. Indy Pulse uses spoken
word poetry to activate that element of humanity essential to creating the
society, and the people, we all hope
for.
Parents:
Are you concerned about your kid “making
it”: making it through school, tests, and overcoming whatever temptations
stand in their way to living a productive, happy life?
Teachers:
When is the last time you were able to
converse with your students about race and class? When was the last time
you were able to authentically listen
to—and validate—your students’ voices?
Students:
When is the last time you were able to really say what you wanted to say? When was the last time you got to tell your
story? When was the last time you felt
included in a community who you could share your story with?
Through our events, culturally
responsive practices, and Common Core-aligned curriculum we cultivate youth
who articulate their vision for meaningful life paths. Their academic and
interpersonal skills improve. The result: a Reflective youth who can Advocate
for equity and actualize it through our Inclusive
community. Our schools partners, families, and youth are from different “sides” of Indianapolis, and from different socio-economic and racial
experiences.
How can you help build a better Indianapolis? Support our
future leaders and citizens. Support Indy Pulse.
Impact to date
We
partner with seven Indianapolis schools
and six community partners to serve over 170 students. We provide students with mentorship from
nationally ranked spoken word artists and empower our teacher leaders to
increase their Pulse team’s capacity by providing support as they earn
stipends, fellowships, and awards for their Indy Pulse work.
We sent Indianapolis’ inaugural spoken word team to the
world’s largest youth poetry slam—Brave New Voices. KJ, a Pulse leader, earned honorable mention
at BNV; she is 13, the youngest allowable age to compete. Our national and local media coverage
increased three-fold.
Our curriculum’s cultural responsiveness
activates student voice, which improves their academic success and behavior. NWEA
scores and report cards show our students’ academic gains.
Indy Pulse is at an
essential growth point. We're expanding to more schools next year. Ultimately—and
with your support—we will create a city-wide league that promotes student
voice, inclusion, and community.
How your support helps
Where is the primary place our youth must go? Schools. We
meet youth where they are; and we reformulate relationships amongst students,
parents, educators, and community members.
Your support will go directly towards our facilitator-educators,
materials, events, and College and Career Readiness. Our phenomenal Teacher
Leaders lead biweekly programming, and our Professional Poet Mentors lead
regular workshops with youth, families, and community Partners. Our Pule
Pipeline Scholarship program supports youth as they complete high school and
their college and technical education beyond.
Our Team
Camea Davis is currently a Gates Millennium Scholar, was awarded the Teacher Creative
Renewal Grant by Eli Lilly in 2014 to travel the European (Rome, Venice,
Tuscany, Paris, Florence); she archived these sites and carry them to inner
city communities and classrooms and engage students in reflective writing about
their own environments—which exemplifies our approach: leveraging spoken word
to bridge the Western canonical and the urban cultural experiences. She is in
her second year as a doctoral student at Ball State’s Educational Policy and
Cultural studies program, focused on educating African American children
equitably.
Tony DelaRosa leads our branding and public relations, he speaks Spanish, which helps our
Latino youth dive deeper into their identity and re-create their narrative. He
is an Asian American teacher, currently working with TFA’s Culturally
Responsive Teaching Pilot Cohort to create programming for corps members to
help bring awareness and strengthen culturally responsive teaching best
practices in the classroom. He is helping to design a city-wide youth summit aimed
to help students find and leverage their leadership and voice.
Lauren
Hall, as Executive Director, relentlessly increases her competency for this
work; she increased her skills by completing the first semester at Indiana
University School of Public and Environmental Affairs—ranked number one in the
nation for my studies in Non-Profit Management. More fundamental to our
functioning, she leads our community, city, and school partnerships; she crafts
our strategic-planning, budgeting, calendar, and initiatives to establish
long-term sustainability. She drafts our grant narratives and coalesced our
curriculum's framework.