Stand Connects with Tomorrow’s Leaders at V-Team Community Youth Forum
06.22.2009 // by: Alison
Stand spent a fun and enlightening morning at The Bethlehem Center talking with 65 kids from across the Chattanooga region. The V-Team, which is made up of teens from all over Alton Park and its surrounding neighborhoods, got together with Lookout Mountain Presbyterian’s youth group to discuss what they love and what they would love to see change about where they live.
The conversation began with everyone filling out Stand’s four-question survey. The teens’ responses were then compiled into word clouds, which were used to open group dialogue. Across zip codes, the kids found common ground in their love for local schools, parks and restaurants; their frustration with drugs, littering and homelessness; and, of course, the unanimous desire for a water park. The morning closed with hand-drawn word cloud projects made by the youth to visually represent their hopes and ideas. These nine group projects will be on public display at Nightfall this Friday.
You can see coverage of the Youth Forum on both WDEF/News12’s and WTVC/NewsChannel9’s Six O’Clock News. Also, flip the radio to Groove 93.5 from 7-8 pm this evening to hear the coordinators of the event — The V-Team’s Lurone “Coach” Jennings and Stand’s Craig Van Korlaar — chat about today’s forum and Chattanooga’s future.
Inspiring Results in Ten Days
06.15.2009 // by: Alison
Thanks to the dedication of Stand’s wonderful volunteers, we are proud to announce the successful completion of our Ten Percent in Ten Days initiative. From the opening night of Riverbend – Friday, June 5 – through the Chattanooga Market last Sunday, June 14, the Stand Campaign set out to collect 2,500 responses to its four-question visioning survey, roughly 10% of the overall goal of 25,000 responses. Our final tally for the ten day period came out to 2,618 – well over target.
Stand’s team of field organizers and volunteers hit the pavement to ask festival-goers how to make our region a better place in the future, and found their own inspiration from the people they met along the way. Says volunteer Scott Crawford, “It was great to hear about the real Chattanooga from the people of Chattanooga because even with our flaws and faux pas the number one answer I got regarding people’s favorite part of the city was the kindness of its residents.”
Similarly, field organizer Blair Waddell sat down to talk with an elderly couple before the Willie Nelson show on a bench overlooking the Tennessee River. “What was most interesting was realizing that I, someone from the younger generation, was having a conversation with these people who’ve known Chattanooga throughout many of its transformations and that we were coming together in a call for Chattanooga’s future. It was a fifteen minute conversation that gave me a better understanding of how important this process and campaign is in bringing people together.”
An incentive to participation in Ten in Ten was a $100 cash prize to three random survey participants, which were awarded yesterday to Andy Powell from Ooltewah, TN, Rebecca Holder from Signal Mountain, TN, and Michael Parson from Chickamauga, GA. Congratulations to these three Chattanooga area residents and to all Stand Campaign volunteers and participants.
Take the survey, find out about the many ways that you can volunteer, or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) about how you’d like to become involved.
Ten Percent in Ten Days
06.09.2009 // by: Alison
In anticipation of Riverbend, we’ve pulled out the clipboards and yellow t-shirts and set an ambitious goal. From the opening night of Riverbend – Friday, June 5 – through the Chattanooga Market on Sunday, June 14, Stand aims to collect 2,500 responses to its 4-question visioning survey, roughly 10% of the overall goal of 25,000 responses.
Since Riverbend is such a perfect opportunity to reach out to an extremely diverse crowd of people from across the entire region, we’ve added a little incentive too. At the end of the festival, we’ll be drawing the names of three survey respondents for a $100 cash prize to be awarded on Monday, June 15.
Now four days in, we’re well on our way to meeting our ambitious goal, with the Bessie Smith Strut providing the highest numbers and most diverse responses yet. While one elementary school student from Hixson who took the survey last night wrote that recycling, clean water, and “giving back to the homeless” were programs that she thought could use improvement, a 55 year old woman from St. Elmo is most concerned with creating bicycle lanes on Broad Street.
The Stand booth at Riverbend can be found on Riverfront Parkway between the two Tennessee Aquarium buildings. Additionally, Stand volunteers in yellow t-shirts will be hitting the pavement to ask festival-goers how to make Chattanooga a better place for the future. If you’re out and about this week and you’d like to stop by and fill out a survey – or pick up a stack to hand out – keep an eye out for the yellow and black.
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