Featured Image: The Humane Society of Huron Valley introduced kids
to animals and animal care. Also, the UM National Pan-Hellenic Council engaged the students in fun interactive games.
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Thank You, Volunteers!
April was Volunteer Appreciation Month and we are so grateful to have so many volunteers we could take the time to appreciate!
CAN operates After School Programs during the school year at 6 of our community centers. During this time, we have many mentors and enrichment groups that dedicate their time to partnering with our students on homework help, developing social-emotional skills, and/or hosting some really fun activities!
All of our community centers offer food distributions and pantry services for residents in their communities. Bryant Community Center is the largest location and the only CAN community center that has a food distribution available to all Washtenaw County residents. Many people come far and wide to shop for yummy food delivered by Food Gatherers and other generous donors. We couldn't unload, organize, and distribute all of this food without our amazing volunteers!
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Bob, for example, has been a consistent Bryant Market volunteer for YEARS! Many clients ask for him by name or refer to him as the "guy who is always here." He greets everyone who comes to us with an energetic hello and prides himself in knowing the clients personally and remembering their names. |
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We also have groups that help on a regular basis with keeping our centers and shared spaces clean and safe for all who come through. Volunteers have helped pick up trash around the area, landscape around our centers, paint walls & fences, and put together furniture (like our regular go-to handymen we lovingly call "the ol' guys").
CAN is abundantly grateful for the volunteers who dedicate their time and talents to help us accomplish our mission. You make our programs stronger and work would not be the same without your warmth and dedication!
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Check out our new Volunteer web page! |
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Join us as a
Summer Program Facilitator
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Spots are filling fast!
Educational Summer Program Facilitators work as a team to operate CAN's 6-week educational summer camp programs at one of CAN’s multiple sites, partnering with children to develop academic, art & design, and social-emotional skills. There are two weeks of in-person training before the camp begins and a week for wrap-up/concluding activities after the 6-week summer camp ends (making for a total commitment of 9 weeks over the summer).
This year’s thematic curriculum is about Environmental Science!
Students will explore a variety of themes within the sphere: culture & the environment, biodiversity, climate change, natural resources, sustainability, and youth activism. Each topic will be taught and reflected upon through creative art, music, writing, and theater projects. The summer camp goal will be for students to deepen their personal understanding and awareness, and to cultivate environmental ambassadors.
Candidates must be available Monday-Friday from about 9:30am-5:30pm, June 13, 2022 – August 12, 2022.
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Thanks to AmeriCorps VISTA for producing this amazing highlight video from last year's Educational Summer Camp Program! --> |
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What Is Happening at CAN? |
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Our community centers have been putting together and implementing "Self-Care" rooms or spaces for students to go to relax, calm down, and return to a more calm and controlled state of mind during After School Program.
Our team worked with Master's students in the University of Michigan STAMPS program to construct the room at Green Baxter Court, Hikone, and Brick Community Centers, and then we purchased toys like fidget spinners, pop-its, and stress balls that the kids can use to de-stress, and we got individual journals for each student to write in and keep.
Social-emotional learning books help teach our students important coping strategies that are grade-level specific. We also included some self-care posters and an emotional recognition wheel so students can label the emotions they are experiencing to find and implement the right strategies if they need help calming down.
Our goal in introducing labels and strategies related to our mental and emotional health is not to tell our students how to feel or what we think the "perfect" tool is for them, but to simply provide a myriad of strategies with the hope that at least one approach will resonate with each individual in a way that can be repeated and sustained in their daily lives.
Our spectrum of feelings are a celebrated part of who we are and the more we can find healthy ways to feel all of them deeply, to name them, and figure out what is generating that emotion, the more we gain in self-knowledge, mental strength, and confidence in all of who we are, knowing fully our inherent value just by being ourselves.
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Green Baxter Court students got to go on an awesome field trip to Planet Rock! |
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CAN locations are wrapping up After School Program in the coming weeks as we say goodbye to all of our college-aged Program Assistants & Interns and pivot toward preparing for our exciting Educational Summer Camps!
We'll miss our kiddos during the in-between season, but we can't wait to give our rising 1st-6th graders an incredible summer!
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Looking for Ways to Get Involved? |
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In the midst of shortages due to food chain supply issues, consider giving to CAN this May! |
Businesses, grocery stores, and food suppliers are strapped for resources as breakdowns in the food supply chain at multiple levels are making it difficult to obtain fresh meat and produce.
Help ensure CAN families have healthy, fresh food on their tables by donating gift cards from nearby grocery stores or donating a little extra to CAN this month so we can purchase items families need to stabilize in this rocky season.
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Donate to Support the
CAN Art & Design program
(creator CAN's upcoming Environmental Sustainability thematic curriculum)
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CAN's thematic curricula utilize sensory learning and tactile materials to assist students with problem-solving through designing prototypes and creating real projects. Every donation will assist with ensuring our students have access to the materials they need to become world-changers!
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Find Other "Ways to Give" |
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Check out our Support page to see what items and in what other ways |
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Community Action Network
PO Box 130076, Ann Arbor, MI 48113
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Community Action Network partners with children, youth, and families from under-resourced Washtenaw County neighborhoods to create better futures for themselves and improve the communities in which they live. |
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