Contest to Promote Live Learning Community Project to "Connect the Places We Learn" The City of Boston's Live Wire Learning Community Project has announced its 1st Annual Live Wire Video Contest, which will recognize student and teacher-created digital storytelling that promotes the concept of "community learning." The Live Wire project and contest are part of Mayor Thomas Menino's Community Learning Initiative (CLI), a multi-departmental effort between Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Boston Public Schools, and the Boston Public Library to create a "high-voltage" physical and virtual community network that supports youth in reaching their full potential. Details of the contest will be announced in November, but there will be multiple winning categories (youth and adults), celebrity judges, and a gala award ceremony at Boston's Strand Theater early next year.

"Learning is the responsibility of the entire community - schools, community centers, libraries, and homes," said Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "We are grateful for Live Wire's support of community learning."

CLI's Live Wire Learning Community Project is a public-private partnership which seeks to connect the places we learn throughout the entire community - school, library, community centers, and homes - improving student engagement, achievement, and outcomes at all age levels. The City of Boston, Boston Public Schools, Boston Public Library, the Boston Centers for Youth & Families, and Boston-based educational technology/professional development resource center,FableVision Learning successfully launched the Live Wire program this past spring at Dorchester/Franklin Field Community Learning sites in Dorchester, MA. The launch event included Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Boston Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Carol Johnson, Boston Public Library President Amy Ryan, Executive Director of the Boston Centers for Youth & Families Daphne Griffin, and hundreds of students and teachers.

The pilot program outfitted the Lee Schools in Dorchester with the Live Wire Creative Learning Bundle, which includes an integrated curriculum, tool, and professional development program. The bundle included inspirational books about learning by best-selling Boston-area author/illustrator Peter H. Reynolds (The Dot, Ish, The North Star, Judy Moody, Rose's Garden), as well as educational software, technology, and professional development - a package totaling nearly $225,000. The pilot resources were donated by FableVision Learning, Candlewick Press, Wacom, and eInstruction.

The Live Wire Learning Community project pilot in Dorchester serves as a model for other communities in Massachusetts and beyond. Over the next couple of years, the existing partnership is committed to extending the reach and impact of the Live Wire model to communities in the Circle of Promise (Dorchester and reaching into Roxbury), and beyond. The second CLI site - comprised on the Grove Hall Community Center, Grove Hall Branch Library, and Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester, is slated to roll out the Live Wire program this fall.

More about Community Learning Initiative (CLI)

The City of Boston's Community Learning Initiative (CLI) seeks to address key factors for healthy development in youth by aligning City departments and community organizations to coordinate services and programming. CLI partnerships in eight neighborhoods provide a holistic approach to supporting youth and engaging families, ensuring that all youth have access to enriching opportunities to nurture their development.

Comment