Impressions of a neighborhood
Children take a multimedia look at the West Side Park community
Archived article from Oct 6, 2000
By Douglas Frank
Several teams of Newark elementary and high school pupils, mentored by students from Rutgers, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Essex County College, joined community organizations in a multimedia project last spring that documented life in the West Side Park neighborhood of Newark.
Titled "One Block Over: A Multimedia Project of the West Side Park Community," the project was conducted under the direction of George Paschalis, director of the Newark Center for Families and Communities (NCFC) of the College of Nursing, and Patricia Bender, director of the writing center at Rutgers-Newark.
The aims of the Rutgers-based program included offering all participants an extracurricular activity that would create interest in composing in multimedia. The program also sparked interest in writing and revision, and encouraged the pupils to take an active role in revitalization efforts under way in the community.
Armed with tape recorders, digital cameras, pencils and notebooks, the children interviewed community leaders, residents, parents, grand-parents, religious leaders and peers. They also recorded their own impressions and experiences of life in their neighborhood.
Then, with the help of the college students, they were introduced to book and Web-site design using various software applications. The result was a Web site and a 43-page publication providing a portrait of one Newark community.
Included are dozens of photos, profiles of the students and community organizations, poems, interviews and a history of the area.
Described by Hurdis Griffith, dean of the College of Nursing, as another way in which the NCFC serves the Newark community, the project was funded by a community outreach partnership center grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as Strategic Resource and Opportunity Analysis (SROA) funds from the university.
"Creating the book helped the youth establish a focus for their work in the community and led to the development of a youth leadership council," said Paschalis. The council completed a "to-do" list of things over the summer, including scheduling park cleanups, refurbishing a flagpole, fixing up the tennis courts, holding a community barbecue and landscaping park entrances.
"The enthusiasm didn't just end with the book," he added. "It launched the students in the right direction and gave them a blueprint for how to take a leadership role in the community."
Bender pointed out that the project also addressed the isolation of a city's neighborhoods. The title comes from the fact that every neighborhood is only "one block over" from another, she said.
"This is the first in what I hope will be a series of publications," said Paschalis, noting that discussions are under way for a second project that would focus on the entire city of Newark.
The project's Web site can be found by clicking on Rutgers Community Outreach Partnership Center at www.ncfc.rutgers.edu.
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