MEDIA ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: May 8, 2009

For More Information:
Rebecca Martusewicz, 734-730-7359 or rmartusew@emich.edu

Detroit students teaming with homeless to turn old tires into new hope
Kids’ innovative ‘green’ project with Eastern Michigan University, Hope of Detroit Academy, Cass Community Social Services transforms scrap rubber into doormats

WHO: 22 seventh-grade students and teachers from Hope Detroit Academy are partnering with EMU educators, Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision, Cass Community Social Services staff and local homeless volunteers

WHAT: Collecting scrap tires from the neighborhood where the school is located in SW Detroit and taking them to Cass Community Social Services for conversion into new residential doormats (Cass provides training and jobs to homeless clients they serve by teaching them the conversion process)

WHY: The project is part of the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (www.glstewardshiporg) and Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition to improve K-12 education and protect the environment by having elementary, middle and high school students use “place-based learning” to study ecology and community issues

WHEN: 8:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. (noon) Tuesday, May 12

WHERE: Intersection Hope Detroit Academy, 4443 N. Campbell, and east of Livernois Avenue

NEWS ADVISORY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: November 10, 2008

For More Information:
Rebecca Martusewicz, 734-730-7359 or rmartusew@emich.edu

DETROIT — The campus of Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti will host 250 students from southwest Detroit, along with their teachers and parents, for the official kick-off of the Hope of Detroit Academy Stewardship Initiative on Nov. 14 to promote learning about Michigan’s ecology. The students are 4th through 8th graders from Hope of Detroit Academy, a K-12 charter school sponsored by the Leona Group, and members of the Southeast Michigan Stewardship (SEMIS) Coalition housed at EMU.

“We are very excited to be working with these students, their teachers, and their principal Benny Cruz,” said Dr. Rebecca Martusewicz, director of the SEMIS Coalition and professor in the Department of Teacher Education at EMU. “It has never before been more important for communities and schools to work together to involve young people in meaningful explorations and studies that lead to real learning about critical social and environmental problems facing our communities.”

The Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition (SEMIS) is made up of schools, community partners, teacher consultants, and university educators working together to address serious ecological and social problems in Southeast Michigan. The SEMIS Coalition is one of four “hubs” in the state established by the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative (GLSI) with funding from the Great Lakes Fishery Trust and the Wege Foundation. Partners in this Coalition facilitate school-community partnerships and offer sustained professional development to teachers to develop students as citizen-stewards who understand and can promote healthy ecological and social systems affecting the Great Lakes basin, the southeast Michigan region, and their communities.

The Hope of Detroit kick-off event will celebrate the beginning of this school’s participation in the GLSI initiative, designed to develop students’ abilities to identify and address the specific social and ecological problems faced by their community. Hope of Detroit teachers have been working with SEMIS community partners to develop curriculum and community-based projects that will engage these students in addressing such issues as illegal dumping, toxic soil and brownfields, wildlife habitat needs, and water issues in their neighborhoods.

Friday’s event will include community organizations from southwest Detroit and around the southeastern Michigan region who will present a variety of interactive workshops introducing students to issues such as the importance of local watersheds, the history of land use in SW Detroit, composting and the work of worms, bees as Detroit ecologists, and recycling versus landfills. Presenters include singer/songwriter Joe Reilly, the Matrix Theater, the River Raisin Institute, renowned storyteller LaRon Williams, Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision, Urban Options, Green Toe Gardens, and the National Wildlife Federation.

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