Uri-central-falls

Creating Central Falls, R.I., as a model of success

• Reality -- Central Falls is 39 out of 39 cities in Rhode Island in many metrics. One-square mile in size; smallest city in the state; once called the "meth capital of New England."

• Majority Latino-Latina -- mostly Columbia and Guatemalan.

• School district operated by the state; $36M budget; the city budget by comparison is $16M.

• Obama spoke about Central Falls in 2010 when more than 100 staff and teachers at the high school were fired. President spoke out in support of Supt. Fran Gallo.

• City was declared bankrupty. In the resulting receivership, things have closed or been cut; the library is limping along.

Forward vision: Presenting the challenges

• So many families don't speak English. Most public notices issued in bilingual formats.
• Working on something called the Esperanza project and a media project; working with a group at Harvard called Latin roots.

• He is trying to get people to come to dinner in Central Falls and they won't. How do we get folks to pay attention?

• The other challenge is the cultural sensitive issue.

What are the strengths of Central Falls?

• Award-winning, nationally ranked charter school
• The people, generally
• Replacement of older group; old mayor in prison on corruption conviction; new mayor is age 28; most of administration is in 20s, with strong academic expertise (degrees from Brown; Bryant College. "We traded 50s corruption for 20s inexperience. I'm OK with the change." New mayor has gone to the mat for the community; he was a high-school football star; he has chosen to give back.
• Ability of young administration to connect youth, often through events.
• Future vision one of staying in Central Falls, not running off.

Projects underway

• Creation of a memorial park named after Rene R. Coutu

Observations

• Thinking about town-gown community. His sense is that this is often lip service. Roger Williams University had 300 students come clean, paint and sweep for a day. But more is needed. Parks-recreation has only one employee. So there will have to be volunteers to maintain the new park.

What are the missions of Esperanza and the media project?

• Main aspect of the media program is digital media literacy through access to and use of video and film tools. First project is kids will b asked to make a five-minute film to tell your story. They'll be screened at the library and on the Harrington School website.

• Goal is to re-direct the aspirations and future of high-school students from the danger of drugs and early parenting to college and a career. "If we can reach 9th grade girls, and anyone else who wants to participate ... and put video cameras not guns into their hands," that can help. Not so much about editing process, but about showing the somebody cares.

Esperanza is ongoing. It is a collaboration among a half dozen entities, to advise, consult, provide mentors and interns, a collaboratin to prove ESL and health programs such as a dental clinic. The programs are done in the library parking lost. "We connect needs as we identify them."

QUESTION: What about dating-violence education?

• Carol Aanderheggen discusses this.

Negative stories are the norm and positive stories are harder get out. You are swimming upstream with good stories. Visit the Learning Community on Broad Street. Kids are anxious to get into the charter school each morning.

QUESTION: How are alumni programs?

Not aware of any single alumni group or event. What about a high-school meeting. There was a group called the square-mile coalition that disbanded.

Q: A lot of Moses Brown students in the minority community were from Central Falls. It would be great to reach out and bring them back.