Volleyball will be participated in from November 7th to November 22nd. We hope to convey the basic skills and rules that each youth can take with them to watch a International or Olympic event and understand what is going on. The youth will learn the FIVB(Federation Internationale de Volleyball) rules and regulations. The basic skills will include passing/bumping, setting, and hitting/spiking. Additionally, the youth will be put into a team environment and be asked to succeed in this environment.
]]>Ultimate Frisbee can best be described as a combination of sports. There are elements of football, soccer, volleyball, and basketball. We partook in this activity from October 17th to November 6th. We tried to teach the youth the basic skills to play ultimate Frisbee anywhere. These include the two basic throws (forehand and backhand) and the basic rules.
]]>by Ada Chen (age 17)
"Tammy and I had to cut the cold and squishy chicken into smaller pieces.... While cutting the chicken, mosquitoes were flying around us, trying to start dinner themselves."
]]> On August 17, 2005, eighteen young teens and five staff met in front of the Chinese Historical Society at 8:30 a.m. to start our trip to Big Basin. From Chinatown to Big Basin, it was about two hours. When we got near we had to go through a very curvy road before we reached our campsite. Once we got there, I see more trees than people and more mosquitoes than before.One of the most memorable parts of the camping trip was the night hike. We couldn’t use flashlights so everyone had to help each other out through the trail. For example, the people in the front would warn the people in the back if there was something in the way, like a big rock or big root. I had a really caring partner that would warn me about everything. Unfortunately before she could warn me about some of them, I had already slipped. During the night I couldn’t really see many things but I do remember seeing the bright moon and some stars and at some parts of the trail. I saw some leaves that glowed on the floor. I didn’t really hear much besides people trying to warn the others about the road and parts when I heard some crickets chirping. At one part of the hike, I thought that we crossed a big bridge, but it turned out to be a big tree that fell down and created a bridge. This hike was supposedly a forty minute hike but it ended up being a two-hour hike. Even though it was somewhat tiring, I think it was a nice exercise before I slept.
For the morning hike, the whole group was split into two. One group started by leading the way leaving trail marks on the floor for the second group to follow. Unfortunately, the first group made a wrong turn and we ended up somewhere else. Our destination was supposed to be on top of the mountain, but we still ended up at the bottom of the mountain where there was also a stream. From this, I realized that leading the way can be very hard. When the first group was taking time deciding on which way to go, the second group caught up with us. When we went back, it was the second group’s turn to lead the way, we also caught up to them and so we get a longer rest before continuing.
The meals we had were not bad, even though breakfast and lunch was mostly the same, which was cereal and sandwiches. But dinner was different, on the first night we had chicken skewers and on the second night we had chili. I remember that my group was in charge of preparing dinner for the first night. Tammy and I had to cut the cold and squishy chicken into smaller pieces. Betty and Jason had to cut the bell peppers and onions. While cutting the chicken, mosquitoes were flying around us, trying to start dinner themselves. So I was not only worrying that I would hurt myself with the knife but I also scared that I would get bitten by the mosquitoes.
On the second night, each group of teens was in charge of acting out a ghost story. It was suppose to be scary but it turned out to be very funny. I think that all stories had their funny parts, especially Vinson’s group. He was the female ghost with long hair and one eye. Before we started to act the scary stories out, Vinson came up to me and ask me how I play with my hair and he started to practice with my hair so he would be more like a girl. I think that the outcome of him being a girl was good and funny.
On August 19, 2005, we started to pack up to leave Big Basin. During the trip back to San Francisco, we stopped in a park for lunch and we played a game called “The Blob”. I was in charge of leading the game that I never heard of, but it turned out to be good. The objective was to tag people and they have to hold hands and tag more people; the game ends when everyone is tagged. The last person standing was Seward because before he was tagged, he pushed Donna out and so she was tagged first. This is a fun game; I think I would recommend this for others to play.
In conclusion, I think that this camping trip was really fun, since this was my first experience camping in a national park. I think the people in Nite Lites got a little closer by helping each other out when help was needed. During the hike, there were areas when people needed help crossing; I saw people reaching their hands out to help. So this was a successful trip and it would be fun if I could go again.
]]>by Vinson Chen (age 16)
Immediate Past Nite Lites Treasurer
"Though our planning of activities was very off, we managed to get things together, and had a lot of fun. I hope we can plan this every year. As every second dies and a new second comes, my memories of this trip will forever live in my heart and soul."
]]> Hello, I am Vinson Chen, former Treasurer of the Nite Lites. Nite Lites have been around since the year 2002. We are the first youth leadership group amongst the eight Beacons in San Francisco. We do community service and build a team of youth leaders, though most of our community service has resided at Chinatown Beacon Center events. This group has endured many troubles until lately, when we started to join back into a group and give back to the community. This camping trip at Big Basin was planned for a very long time until we have finally got everything together for it. Through much planning we finally got to rejoice on the crop we planted so long ago.This camping trip was on the 17th of August. As eighteen members of the Nite Lites met at the Chinese Historical Society of America with five of the staff, we all worked together to pack up the vans for our camping trip. Our trip was around two hours to the campsite. When we got to the campsite, the park ranger wasn’t there to unlock the trailer so we started with some games and some questions to allow us to better know each other. Later we took a hike to where our showers were and most of us went to a waterfall near the campsite while the others went back to the campsite to help set up.
Back from the waterfall we had to set up our tents. Everyone had tents that were able to be set up, but my group was missing poles for the tent so we had to set up another tent until we found out that we were missing a pole again. After setting up the tents we had dinner. Our dinner was chicken skewers and pita bread. It was satisfying but then I noticed plenty of mosquitoes in our campsite. The night hike was great though exhausting. We got to feel nature with our working senses. The next day we went hiking. Half the group would lead and the other followed half an hour behind, following trail markers to get to the point they wanted us to be. Our day soon ended but we had chili for dinner and at night we had our spooky skits that we acted out ourselves.
Our last day was a recap on the camping trip. We went to a park to have lunch. Then we played a game called “The Blob”. It was great and it drained plenty of energy out of us. As we said our farewells to the park and Big Basin we journeyed back to San Francisco. This camping trip was very fun and I felt that our group came a bit closer together. Though our planning of activities was very off, we managed to get things together, and had a lot of fun. I hope we can plan this every year. As every second dies and a new second comes, my memories of this trip will forever live in my heart and soul.
We hope to see you during the school year or next summer!
Kiyomi Noguchi
Summer Program Manager
Click here to see some of the youth-created media from this summer's program.
]]>Client Information
The Chinatown Beacon Center accepts students into the ACE/ASL Program who may need further academic assistance based on test scores, and/or additional language support. Students are also accepted into the program through parent requests and special circumstances (i.e. after school bus needs, safe place to stay during the after school hours, other siblings are accepted into the program, etc.). The ACE/ASL Programs serve students from Kindergarten to 5th grade.
The ACE/ASLP programs serves almost 400 students every day for the academic school year atfive elementary schools: Gordon J. Lau Elementary School, Jean Parker Elementary School, John Yehall Chin Elementary School, Sherman Elementary School
Funding Sources (percentage of government, private, other):
SB 1756 State Grant (ASESP After School Safety and Education Program)ASESP
Define the Program Services area:
ACE/ASLP are FREE programs for its participants. Grant funding is based on daily student attendance and is tracked through monthly attendance logs, Monthly Meal Count sheets (MMC), and Meal Production Worksheets (MPW).
The ACE and ASLP programs:
What type of activities do "clients" engage in:
The students participate in enrichment activities that incorporate the youth development model as well as provide hands-on applications to support academic learning. Activities are structured around what would best complement what they are learning during the school day as well as offer students an opportunity to engage in clubs or electives that they may either not be exposed to or participate in during the school day.
Some examples:
How does the program engage community members:
The ACE program greatly rely on organizations, agencies and community members who are interested in working with the schools within those hours. For example, Wild Planet Toys, Inc., Girl Scouts, SambAsia and volunteers from the community who run Super readers Book Clubs.
Misc.
The Program Strengths includes:
The Current Program's Challenges include:
Center programs are open to everyone and are at the hub of the Chinatown Beacon Center’s community involvement. The homework center and workshops give youth a safe place to be with their friends and learn new skills. Young people may participate in a variety of activities such as homework, cooking, hip hop dance, sports, computers, video, art, and community service projects.
Homework center is for young people in grades four and above; workshops are for those in grades six and above. The Chinatown Beacon Center welcomes all young people from throughout San Francisco.
The homework center and workshops are located at [Gordon J. Lau Elementary School]; homework center meets in the cafeteria, and workshops meet in the auditorium and go to various locations throughout the school.
Homework Center is from 3:30 – 6:00 p.m., and workshops are from 4:15 – 6:00 p.m. Participants may arrive between 3:30 – 4:15 p.m. to sign in and hang out. Programs start in the fall and end at winter break. They begin again in January and end at the end of May. Look out for the fall 2005 schedule, coming soon!
When was your program first started?
Center programs have evolved since the Chinatown Beacon Center first opened in 1996.
Who helped develop this program?
Chinatown Beacon Center staff, workshop leaders, and participants helped develop this program.
The Summer Assistant Leader in Training (SALT) Program engages high school youth who might otherwise not have the opportunity to attend summer programming. This summer the program focused on developing leadership skills in a community context. SALTs split their time between assisting a Program Leader - working with elementary and middle school youth - and attending their own workshops - which included teambuilding, leadership skills, discussion of their groups, debating, public speaking, break dancing, improvisation, and research with the Chinese Historical Society of America. The current model gives participants the unique chance to learn new skills and put them into practice the very next day.
]]> ]]>Forms may be returned:
In person:
Chinatown Beacon Center Administrative Office
36 Waverly Place, Suite #1
San Francisco, CA, 94108
By Fax:
(415) 983-9514
If you will be entering grade 6, 7, or 8 in Fall 2005, sign up for
Beacon Summer Challenge
Where: Gordon J. Lau Elementary School, 950 Clay Street (between Powell and Stockton), San Francisco
When: Monday – Friday
June 20 – August 5
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Donation: $150 for Field Trips & Fun
A $50.00 discount will be given to families* enrolling two or more participants.
*participants must have the same guardian(s)
Enrollment priority will be given to current program and summer 2004 participants. New participants will be admitted if space is available. Notification of enrollment status will be sent to all applicants on March 25.
If you have additional questions or would like to request a form, please call (415) 983-9510.
]]>The Chinatown Beacon Center summer programs provide safe, supportive, opportunity-rich spaces for young people during the summer. Summer Adventure Camp and Beacon Summer Challenge expose young people to experiences that they might not otherwise have. For example, participants go on field trips such as camping, sailing, and swimming, create digital videos, create art projects, compete in challenges, and have lots more fun. Participants are placed in groups where they make lasting friendships and show team spirit as they work toward meeting the goal of the weekly challenges.
The themes for this summer are: leadership and community. This program is offered to current K – 7 students from San Francisco and will be located at Gordon J. Lau Elementary School 950 Clay St. San Francisco.
The 2005 camp schedule is as follows:
Summer Adventure Camp
Monday to Friday
June 20 – August 5
8:30am – 4:00pm
Beacon Summer Challenge
Monday – Friday
June 20 – August 5
10:00am – 4:00pm
When was the summer program first started?
The Chinatown Beacon Center started running its own summer program in Summer 2002 after contracting with other agencies like the Chinatown YMCA and Cameron House in previous summers.
How did the program start?
There was a conversation with the beacon staff to decide weather to start a program and decided to run it themselves.
Who helped develop this program?
CBC staff and participants
Can I go to summer school and come to CBC’s summer program after summer school hours?
No.
Can I go on vacation and miss three weeks of CBC’s summer program?
No
I’m going to be in high school next year and am too old for the summer program. What can I do?
You can apply for the Summer Assistant Leader Training program.
The Chinatown Beacon Center Website Workshop was developed to provide a space for young people to learn about, influence, and drive the process of rebuilding and maintaining the Chinatown Beacon Center’s online presence. The group meets for one and a half hours each week during the school year and more frequently during spring and summer breaks. Youth volunteers meet for an additional two hours each week to plan for the next session, clean up the code, and upload files.
Currently, the program is located at the Chinatown Beacon Center Administrative Office and participants use the staff’s computers while they are conducting their programs.
]]> Frequently Asked QuestionsThe current website workshop began in the fall of 2004 for young people to learn to create and design their own web pages. The focus of the group changed to working on the Chinatown Beacon Center’s website in response to the disappearance of the content that was previously hosted at chinatownbeaconcenter dot org.
Who helped develop this program?
With guidance from the technology integration coordinator, the participants work together to find and publish the content and develop design. Much of the content has been gathered from the agency’s documentation or through interviews.
What are some of your program's challenges and successes?
One of the program’s challenges is gathering the incredible amounts of content for the website. Several rounds of follow-up e-mails and reminders were needed to compile the descriptions for each program in the Programs section.The biggest success of the workshop is the young people’s role in creating this project. Starting with Movable Type Cascading Style Sheets, the participants designed the layout and format of the site. In addition, they gathered and uploaded almost all of the content. Although the site may take a little longer to be updated and there are still a few bugs and typos, the young people’s great contribution to this site has been the establishment of a a sustainable project and program.
What are the website workshop’s future plans?
chinatownbeacon dot org will always be a work in progress. In order for this website to be useful, to the children, youth, and families of the Chinatown Beacon Center, the information must continue to be revised and updated. This workshop will definitely be offered next fall and the project will continue to be worked on during the summer.
One aspect of the mission of the Chinatown Beacon Center is to strengthen community by unleashing the power of youth. To this end, Lunch Bunch attempts to ease any transitional anxiety that might exist for 5th graders moving on to middle school. During their lunch period, Participants (Lunch Bunch) are involved in team-building exercises and games in which they learn and discuss valuable information about the upcoming transitions. In addition, all fifth graders are taken on a field trip to Francisco Middle School, in order to give them concrete experience of what middle school is like.
Each year, the AmeriCorps members at the Chinatown Beacon Center deliver the Lunch Bunch program to all of the 5th grade students at both Jean Parker and John Yehall Chin Elementary Schools. For the past years, the Lunch Bunch program has evolved and grown with each new AmeriCorps pair and the program’s increased involvement is the District 3 Youth Development Network.
This year the 5th graders were split into groups of ten students to fifteen students each group met twice a week for twelve sessions until all 5th graders had the opportunity to complete the program. Each session lasted for 30 minutes and began at 12:15p.m. and 1:15p.m. at Jean Parker and John Yehall Chin Elementary school respectively.
]]> Frequently Asked QuestionsOne of the main challenges of the Lunch Bunch program is fitting all of the information into 30 minute sessions. Another challenge is convincing the kids that they should attend Lunch Bunch instead of going to recess. (And then telling them about middle school, where there IS no recess!)