Today on Education Counts Michiana, African-American history bus tour of South Bend, Junior Board of Directors at KVREMC, Ukulele Ladies through Adaptive Arts, Brush Strokes for Hope.

Education Counts Michiana is underwritten by Pokagon Band of Potawatomi investing in Education and Economic Development for centuries.

Supporting the past, current and future development of the Michiana region.

Community Foundation of Elkhart County inspire good.

Kosciusko County Community Foundation where donor dreams shine.

The Dekko Foundation.

Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County Crossroads United Way serving Elkhart, Lagrange and Noble Counties United Way of Saint Joseph County Marshall County Community Foundation.

Ready to Grow.

Saint Joe Early Childhood Coalition and a Gift by Elmer and Dolores Teppe.

Thank you.

Welcome to Education Counts Michiana.

I'm your host, James Summers.

Education Counts highlights programs and initiatives that are impacting how we teach, how we learn, and how we embrace education.

This program explores ideas in all education sectors.

Preschool through lifelong learning.

K-12, post-high school and job advancement.

Training with the philosophy that we should never stop seeking knowledge.

Find additional resources at WNIT.org and on the Education Counts Facebook page.

First up, Living History, Indiana University, South Bend, First Presbyterian Church and DTSB are hosting an African American history bus tour of South Bend.

The tour makes multiple stops around South Bend, highlighting the rich cultural heritage of the African American community.

Conversations centers around landmarks, sacred spaces, and important buildings that are no longer standing to make history speak.

Kristen Franklin Videographer.

Greg Banks Editor.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Several years ago, this congregation, First Presbyterian Church of downtown South Bend, chose to be designated as a matthew 25 congregation and looked at How could we be offering things in and with this community to help people live those words?

And so we worked with some other community organizations to put together this bus tour.

South Bend played a partner to the Living Matthew 25 initiative put on by First Presbyterian Church downtown South Bend.

We were asked to come around as a ticketing partner for the bus tour, and also a lot of the landmarks that we made stops at were located in downtown South Bend, so it was a good fit for us to be a partner.

It's part of the Matth...

Living Matthew 25 project of the Presbyterian Church, and it's really about racial justice and the things that were wrong in this city, but also the people who work to make them right.

Black people contributed to their own growth and development and to the welfare of this city.

And that white people should know that and black people should know that.

And it gives you a foundation, I think, to give younger people a foundation.

And it's a way of respecting all people, respecting that people worked.

I mean, they worked here.

They lived here and they died here.

And they made contributions to South Bend.

But if you don't tell those stories, if you don't see that, physically see it, people don't get it.

We stopped at the new marker for Jay Chester, Alan and Elizabeth Fletcher Allen downtown.

That's really significant because they were civil rights lawyers and it's so cool that Elizabeth Fletcher Allen was one of the first woman attorneys here in South Bend in the 1930s.

And we we started here at Civil Rights Heritage Center at the Natatorium.

And those two attorneys, Elizabeth Fletcher and Jay Chester Allen, were instrumental, along with many, many other community members in opening up the doors of this indoor swimming pool to everyone.

Dr. Tesla from IUSB when she does the bus tours normally from the Civil Rights Heritage Center, they will normally make a stop at the South Park and have the students or community to stop out at the South Park, which I think is incredible.

The South Park is home for me, born and raised there.

And so for that neighborhood to be considered as an important spot for the civil rights heritage moves to me is great.

I grew up in an era in the park where the park was not a park, it was actually a city dump.

And every Wednesday and Saturday, people from all over the city would bring their garbage in, their trash and dump out in the park.

And now that is a park.

We have a nice community center out there at the Charles Black Recreation Center.

It's light years from what it was when we grew up there.

They could go inside some of these places and actually talk to people who grew up in like the Lakes area of South Bend and learn why significant.

And to know that some people are still living today.

I was in a workshop one time at the Civil Rights Heritage Center, and there was a young white boy there.

He was in the chamber of Commerce leadership class.

And we were talking and he said, Gee, you still live.

And he thought he she thought it happened 100 years ago, but when when you have those tours and people are still here, you put it in perspective that didn't this didn't happen a hundred years ago might happen 50.

But the people who were involved in that process are still living well.

The elders still remember the times of segregation and the struggle for racial justice here and in and really everywhere.

And the young folks are full of hope, but also fears.

And so seeing how the elders face their fears, how people have done that, that's really important.

Plus, you know, we just have our down times on the bus when they can get to know each other.

The youngest was my daughter, who's 13, and she's African-American.

And this is a very important part of her heritage that I get to share with her.

And what I would want young people to know is that you do have a history and that there is fairness and justice and that you have to all those challenges are always in front of you and that we survived.

If we survived, you can survive.

But we also learned that many of the things that happen cannot be repeated.

And we need to work hard to ensure that things like the discrimination, that the theater, the injustice of not being able to swim in the swimming pool at the site, which is now the Civil Rights Heritage Center, that those things don't happen again.

We haven't really given proper credit to some of our African-American residents that we're doing wonderful things.

They were doctors, lawyers fighting for social justice and civil rights.

And I think those names have been overshadowed over the years by some of those those larger names.

And it's time that we recognize the people in places that make South Bend so great.

And we've got to find a way to be more inclusive so that everybody has the same opportunities as everyone else, whether it be through school, whether it be to education, whether it be through life itself.

We're all human beings and should all be treated equally and the same.

Learn more about history at WNIT.org.

Community engagement.

Kankakee Valley REMC works hard to give back to their community in Stark County.

Their new program, Junior Board of Directors, allows high school students to explore careers in their local community and understand how the economy of their home functions while volunteering and giving back after the school year, they receive a scholarship from KVREMC Segment producer Shanthini Ode.

So we're electric cooperative.

We service about 18,000 members throughout seven counties, parts of seven counties.

So part of the program is community service, and the kids do community projects throughout their school or outside of their school.

And for every hour that they do a service, they earn $15.

We then take that money that they collect throughout the program, throughout the eight months, and they can use that for their capstone project at the end of the time.

The first project that we're doing is helping the Hope Restored Recovery Home.

It's in Richardson, and then the other one is the Stark County Humane Society.

So we're all passionate about it, and I feel like we're definitely going to make a difference as we're raising money in any way to help them.

We're going to donate our time and our labor to help them in any way that we can just to give back to our community.

And we are just wanting to open up the opportunities that we do have here at a co-op or the opportunities that we do have in a community that you don't always have to move away and move to the big city.

There's a lot here for everyone.

I'm definitely going to use like all of the skills that I learned and all the knowledge that I gained from that experience to come back here and definitely try to give back to the community.

I might like lead a service project or something, you know, inform the community about how to take care of your body, how to take care of others, just what you can do in your community to better it.

We've learned how to like, work together different leadership skills, the different businesses in our community.

Learn about this co-op, REMC, and how it works and how it gives back to the community.

We've learned how to do applications for colleges, job interview tips.

Just a whole bunch of stuff to help us out in life and help give back to our community.

They've met with state senator.

State representative.

They're invited to the state house.

We're going to tour the local courthouse.

We're going to watch court in session.

We're going to tour the sheriff's department training facility.

Our goal overall was to ultimately not only open the door to the possibilities we have here at a co-op, but also make better leaders.

One thing that I really like is opportunity.

It's giving us it's giving us information that no one else is really getting as young as we are.

And learning about our community is helping us a lot.

So then we know what needs to be done when we get older.

They're getting a lifetime of experience in eight months that a lot of people might not get in their whole lifetime.

Everyone's a family and the co-op we're all about giving back to the community.

The youth is our future and what we are sharing with these kids ten years from now, we're going to put 100 kids through this program that we hope are going to be better leaders, better people.

I am definitely an introvert, but this is helping me step outside my comfort zone and I'm definitely coming out of my shell.

I do feel like they are equipping me very well.

It's giving me insight on how our community works and different aspects of it that make it better and make it worse and what we can do to better it.

Learn more at WNIT.org.

More than music.

Sometimes learning a new skill benefits the students in more ways than one.

Adaptive Arts Extends Lessons to learn is of all abilities at the Kroc Center.

Ukulele Ladies gather to learn how to make music together, but do so in creating a sacred community greater than they had imagined.

To 1 to 1.

Now we're at the end.

Really?

Here we go at the begin.

Ready?

They're doing ukulele.

Nice.

It's small.

I can get my fingers around the neck compared to a guitar where it's got the bigger strings.

It doesn't hurt my fingers because they're nylon instead of steel and it has a nice tone to it.

Sorry, I only know three three chords by heart.

So yeah, it's just fun.

It's just a wonderful group of women.

We just have fun with different levels of experience.

We're all we all work together.

We just have fun, bread and butter and paid it down.

And they played.

It doesn't take a whole lot of energy to do it.

And I can play anywhere.

I like it.

All the money people, all the rhythm, the feel of the music.

It can either be stimulating, it can be depressing at times.

It can be happy.

And I just enjoy music.

Your body has a natural sense of rhythm.

My job is not to train that out of you.

My job is to help you tap into it and then we're going to give it a little bit of discipline to keep it in demeanor.

That's what attracts me to connect with people is art, music, and we have a lot of it in us.

So when I started working with my students in Adaptive Arts, that artist in me connected with the artist in them.

So I would say that my love of the arts has adapted to include the love of helping other people connect with the music and the artistry that is inside them.

If you learn this first, this first, then this will follow.

I do it because Jetta is a good teacher and I travel about 65 miles one way to come to the center, and I just enjoy the ladies.

They're fantastic.

And the something in common with somebody makes it easier to adapt to learning something is when I find myself in times of trouble.

Okay.

That's exactly what we would have been doing, right?

That's right.

That's right.

Let's lower down to 33.

So that's just a tip and a trick.

When you have a strong intro, how do we get everybody on the same place?

Play just a few bars of what the body of the song is.

Get back into the feel of it.

Transfer that feel to your intro.

Got that timing.

Get that feel.

Here we go.

And in my hour of darkness, she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom.

Let it be.

Did you feel the difference from the first time when we didn't get the feel of the song and started that intro to the second time when we went in?

So that's another tip and trick.

Okay.

And some of the chords complement each other and some of the chords wreck each other.

So you've got to have something that complements when it doesn't quite sound so good.

Like a like a g n ac complement each other chords that we're doing in this one is g, seven c, f you might catch with your ear.

Those of us that are doing a little bit more advanced, you might catch some opportunities for c seven.

If you feel it, take it from the redwood forrest.. To the Gulf Stream water.

This land was made for you and me and say, did we just nail a quick change ending there?

And then just unit we just have fun that the music is wonderful and it's great to share it.

It's just fun.

And Jetta is a fabulous teacher and I figure if I can learn it, anybody can.

And what's interesting is that my niece got into music at school, unbeknownst to me.

She was telling me this this morning that in their music they're doing ukulele for the next two weeks.

And my nephew, which is her brother, is doing guitar for the next three weeks.

I'm going, Wow, we need to jam now because I might be able to learn something from them or they might learn something from me.

Even though we're both green and it's it's kind of cool.

I knew I was a musician and I thought I was going to be the star on stage the day I gave that away to my students.

This is the day when I really, really got what it meant to be an artist.

Why am I so sure?

It's one thing to have a talent.

another when you give it away.

So I guess what I get out of it is the satisfaction of seeing it come full circle.

And then I know that I have somebody that is not just a student relationship, but is also now one of my partners in art.

Please don't take my sunshine away.

Now we have find out more about the program at WNIT.org Our idea is to have a capsule that will lock your pills.

And every single time that the capsule is open, a notification is sent to your phone.

So if you have a substance abuser in your house or a young child and they open up your medicine, intake medicine at all or too much, you'll be notified so that the competition itself, whether allows this provides the students an opportunity to, you know, really come up with very creative ideas, which is one of the requirements of the competition and puts them in a position where they need to thoroughly think out their idea and how their idea might become a business opportunity or a social entrepreneurial opportunity.

I chose to do the next launches because I thought it sounded like a really unique opportunity and something that not a lot of people can do.

And it just really excited me the the chance to pitch an idea.

And I think that's something that might be able to translate into success in the future.

And it's just something that not a lot of people can do.

Learning to speak art can be many things.

Students in the brush strokes for hope class learn how to make hope filled, inspirational, positive art.

The classes allow the students to emerge with an array of materials to find their own voice through art, making and empowerment brushstrokes that our hope is something that we developed with the First Presbyterian Church.

That is an art creation and of mixed media.

So it's different.

People can pour on their emotions in it by cutting out things that mean a lot to them sayings or colors or expressions.

So I do lead them to learn a lot of different techniques, but they're able to really make it personal in addition to learning skills and details on how to make your art, whatever it may be.

In this case, it's mixed media.

I also form community and get them more involved so they get to know each other and build friendships.

Art basically is just a way for people to sort of express themselves, to let off steam, to get into a flow state, to be creative and imaginative.

And in the studio also, it's a way to collaborate with other people and build community.

So St Margaret's house is a day program for women and children experiencing economic poverty.

We assist women with their immediate needs, such as food, shelter.

Obviously for a short while we're just a day center, so it's not overnight.

Today, when I went into the class, they started all helping each other.

And it was it was remarkable.

And I feel really good about the way this foundation has happened.

And it's a perfectly appropriate for a brush strokes for hope, because the whole theme is about uplifting each other as well as themselves.

Everybody has the same materials and it's totally different.

It comes out beautiful.

So I enjoy that and I enjoy having a conversation and seeing how they feel about it and what they like about it.

So art allows you to get outside of your headspace because you're able to express yourself.

You're able to speak on social issues, on things that are happening all around you that you wouldn't ordinarily express to someone because in so many spaces you're not allowed to talk about politics or religion or your own creative space.

So art gives you the ability to get outside of that.

And their work is at the end of class just is astonishing to me because it's so individualistic.

It's exactly what I had hoped for that they take it and make it their own.

And they have.

And they're so proud and they should be.

It's just a new technique that I'm enjoying because I really never worked on canvases before.

I didn't know that you can layer it up with different papers and different techniques.

So that's something new to me and I'm just enjoying it.

And then also you're you're working with your hands a lot and so you're doing something while you're chatting with people.

And sometimes that makes it feel less like intense or just more comfortable for people because they're doing multiple, you know, they're multitasking, they're chatting.

It doesn't feel like, you know, you're staring at each other across the table like and have to make conversation.

You can just also do what you're doing.

People from different backgrounds can become really good friends.

And and it just reinforces that we all have a lot in common.

If you're always in one group, that group always feels the same.

But when you're mixed in with a different population, you get a mixture of feelings and no one's right and no one's wrong.

Everyone needs to know things can get better.

And and they have every reason to hope for a better world.

You're forever learning, ever evolving.

So as long as you don't shut down yourself, the door is wide open for you to experience anything in art.

And I want to experience that.

Check out WNIT.org for more information on all of these stories.

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The success of every student matters Education Counts Michiana is underwritten by Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Investing in Education and Economic Development for centuries, supporting the past, current and future development of the Michiana region community foundation of Elkhart County inspire good.

Kosciusko County Community Foundation where donor dreams shine The Dekko Foundation Community Foundation of Saint Joseph County, Crossroads United Way serving Elkhart, Lagrange and Noble Counties United Way of Saint Joseph County Marshall County Community Foundation Ready to Grow Saint Joe Early Childhood Coalition and a Gift by Elmer and Dolores Tepe.

Thank you.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

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