At Mar.15 2013, I wrote an article in my running story "The truth of social aid（生活保護のリアル）"about Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative(DSNI) for "Diamond Online", one of very popular media among business persons in Japan.
貧困層の子どもたちを“悪い学校”に行かせない！
アメリカ・ボストン郊外で続く約30年間の試み
http://diamond.jp/articles/-/33342
But the medium doesn't have English site, so I release the translation into English here. Thank you Mr. Jose M. Barros and his daughter that they helped me to make this translation.
“Every child should attend good schools”
About 30 years of trial and effort in a poor neighborhood in the City of Boston
Most of social security systems in Japan were constructed after the defeat in 1945, and they were based on the mission of Occupation. Of course, social aid system is one of them.
We Japanese tend to learn things from other developed countries and how are the situation in these countries?
This time, I described efforts for children in poverty of a NPO in the City of Boston. The NPO has been contributed in established the local community for about 30 years.
A NPO which fought against the poverty problem in the society “Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative”
On the afternoon of Feb.19, 2013, I was taking a bus ride from the center of Boston City to an urban area. I wished to visit a NPO “Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI)”, which is well known as initiative against the poverty problem in the area. Before that, I had contacted DSNI to make appointment but I didn't receive an answer yet. I thought I should visit there and see the building and the area.
I could read about DSNI, but I wouldn't have known how about the area and the building just by written materials. I went to a bus station “Dudley Square”, and I took another bus ride. The landscape from the window of the bus changed to more and more desert. I could see some real estate shops and food shops, but about half of these shops were not doing business. There buildings were also filled with graffiti. In the area, there were many houses with post-colonial taste. These houses would be considered as luxurious houses in Japan, but some of them had “For Sale” signs or were deserted as so no one could live in it.
I got off the bus at the destination, and I found the building of DSNI. I crossed the street and moved to the front door. I had just wished to go inside the building and get some written materials, and I introduced myself to a staff at the counter. I said, “I am a writer from Japan and I am interested in your activities.” So I got a courtesy to have an interview.
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| Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative(DSNI), the center of Dudley area's reconstruction for about 30 years. |
I interviewed Mr. Jose M. Barros. He came from the Republic of Cabo Verde as an immigrant in 1977 when he was 24 years old. He became a staff of DSNI in 1996 after working as a Public Relation Liaison for the Cape Verdean Consulate in Boston. As resident and member of DSNI, he is now working as a Community Organizer and Planner on education, civic engagement, parent organization and outreaching.
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| DSNI's web site. Their history, their activities and their vision are described. |
What can we do for children and parents in poverty?
At first, Mr. Barros emphasized that
“We (DSNI) don't provide services. We work with people who come with different needs. We plan and organize. Most of the time, we refer them to other community service organizations. Because of language issues, I tend to help parents by making a call translating letters for them. As I said, DSNI does not provide services”.
In Japan, the relationship between supporters and people with needs tend to become “service provider” and “service recipient”. And we may consider DSNI's activities as none other than services. But DSNI seemed to be in another ground.
What are DSNI's activities for children in poverty?
“We work with parents with children 0-5 years old and we help them access services for their children that usually they cannot get for their kids to be able to succeed before they go to school. We work with them and their children”.
What kind of children?
“We don’t discriminate. We work with all parents and their kids”
I wanted to know about the activities for children with disabilities, because I have disability. At that time, they didn't have children with disabilities, but Mr. Barros said that “If a child comes with disabilities, they will be served the same way”.
And Parents without problems don't visit DSNI. Many poor minority parents visit and need helps from DSNI. What kind of the problems do they have?
“Parents often don't have enough English skills. So they have many difficulties in getting necessary information and making progress at administrative institutions. We bring resources and information to them that otherwise they cannot get”
The children don’t get enough intellectual stimulation at their home.
“Normally, children in the rich neighborhood, when they get to 3rd grade they have about 6000 vocabularies versus our children with only a 1000.”
That is a very serious difference. It may not be only the number of vocabulary, but also it affects them in many aspects, like getting more knowledge, learning and using higher concepts.
“At 6th grade, the difference becomes larger. Children in the early age have abilities to absorb words like sponges and use them later”
Especially for the children before school, it is important to make their parents more conscious and to back up home environments for children.
“So we are working with the parents and making an effort to know what we can do to cooperate. We are working with the parents whose children are 0 to 5 to give them tools they need for the success of their children”.
But the parents don't have enough time.
“Parents in our communities often have 2 or 3 jobs, full time and part time. They are working on Saturday or Sunday. They don't have enough money. Some children stay at home without adult supervision and care. Many of the parents can't speak English as well, so they don't have a voice. I’m working with a single father who has 5 children, and they go to 3 different schools. The mother is still in Cape Verde. This type of separation does not benefit families.”
I don't know the school system in the US very well. I know a little about it because the Internet. In Japan, each area has only one elementary school /junior high school zone. But in the US, the situation is different from Japan. Boston has many different schools. There are many choices for parents. If there are many kids in a family, it is possible that parents will need to advocate, making sure their children go to the same school. And I think parents without skills in English can't negotiate.
“So we have an education committee. The committee works with parents and schools. We work to empower them before the system. In the US children with special needs have the same right to education. The committee brings that information to parents with special need children. We encourage them to visit their children's school and meet the teacher. Most of the time a parent with a special needs child needs to advocate to get those services.”
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| Mr. Jose M. Barros, The Community Organizer and Planner of DSNI. He came from Republic of Cabo Verde and became a staff of DSNI in 1996 after working as a Public Relation Liaison for the Cape Verdean Consulate in Boston. He is also a resident of Dudley area. |
The efforts of DSNI in about 30 years to construct the local community
I'd like to introduce DSNI. What kind of NPO is it?
DSNI's mission is not only to help the children in poverty. DSNI was founded in 1984 to reconstruct the Dudley area, which is in most serious poverty among the Boston city. According to DSNI's web site, Dudley was a desolate neighborhood with arson at that time. After that, for about 30 years, DSNI has been making actions with patience to re-establish the area. Also DSNI has been constructed good relations with the government and other organizations and a strong financial bedrock.
Now DSNI has 3 big agendas, “Sustainable and Economic Development”, ”Community Empowerment” and “Youth Opportunity and Development”. The actions with parents and children are included in the last one.
According to DSNI, the neighborhood is 37% African‐American, 29% Latino, 25% Cape Verdean, and 9% White and other. The average annual income is $12,332. The poverty line in the US is $17,029, so it may not be an exaggeration to say that almost all of the Dudley area is in poverty. The jobless rate of the area is 13.6%. According to www.census.gov, of 2010 the population of the Dudley area in 2007 was about 11,000. The year of these date are not clear in the site, and this poverty line is 1999's. These date may be on several years ago, but the situation in the Dudley area doesn't improved so much, I think.
Does DSNI give weight to the growth of children? Of course, it is important to educate the children well to solve poverty problems and to guarantee the children's rights. But moreover, I think the Dudley area has many children. According to DSNI, about 1/3 of the people in the area are under 19 years old. About half of all families in this area have children under 18 years old. This is double to the Boston city area.
Of course, we Japanese don't have reason to neglect our responsibility to grow up children, however our society is facing to decline in the number of children.
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| The area nearby DSNI is a deserted residental zone. There are shops that they are not doing business and buildings with graffiti. |
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| In a book "American Community" by Yasushi Watanabe, a cultural anthropologist, DSNI's history and their challenge until around 2005 are described. |
One of the big tasks, “That children will continue to have a dream”
Statistics tell that the situation of the Dudley area is very tough. Under the situation, how can children dream their future and make efforts to make sure their dreams will come true?
“That is what we are trying to do”
I think it is difficult. It is very difficult for the children not only to dream something for just a moment, but to continue that dream for years and to continue to make efforts.
“Every kid wants to be someone but you’ve got to help them continue their dream.
We have to tell them that they can do it a lot of times.”
But it is not easy to continue their dream without role models. For children, the appearance is a very big problem.
“We have a lot of minority children in schools, but the teachers come from the white communities. We don't have a lot of teachers that are minorities that look like the children.”
I think the effect is not only that the children can't find the role model that looks like them, but they may tell the children how few their opportunities are to get higher education and future job.
“We tell children that 'you can do anything', but the curriculum of the school is made by someone who is not living in this area. They don't know the situation around the children in this area. Sometimes the children have single parent or don't have parents. Sometimes they do not have enough food. Sometimes they are living with many brothers and sisters in a room. All are different the from children of rich family”
The children may react sharply to the school and teachers because teachers only say proper words.
”We have to tell the kids: “Dream Big! Anything is possible; you can be whatever you want”. But also we hope that teachers can believe in them. A lot of teachers don't believe that. Actually, every kid is intellectual and has ability to succeed”
Sometimes teachers from the white community offend the children, and the teachers return to the white community.
“Some teachers look down on the kids and they offend them, but the teachers are protected by union.”
All schools must be good schools
In 2012, DSNI founded a new charter school. Now the school is small and has only K1, K2 and 1st grade children. Boston Teacher Residency in collaboration with DSNI and is responsible for opening this school. For this year, BTR has been preparing teachers for Boston Public Schools. Now they are using this new school as a “Teaching Academy” to train new teachers and help the new school. In the future, there is a plan to extend to 5th grade.
If all of the children in poverty go to such a school, will the problem with education for children be solved?
“No. We are going to make all school good schools. In Boston, many children of minorities unfortunately go to bad schools or to schools that are not performing well. For some children to attend a good school, the parents send them to schools in suburbs, which come with long bus ride and hours away from their family and their community. If all schools were good schools, every child would be going to their local school”
To Mr. Barros, what is the equal opportunity in education?
“If I cannot put my child in a school because the school is bad, then I shouldn’t force your child to go there either. Now if it’s not good me, it’s not good for you. If your child goes to a good school, my child needs to go to a good school also. Doesn’t matter how much I make.”
There are many things to realize.
“We are putting pressure on the school. We are putting pressure on the city not to cut the budget. Or organizing parents to go and talk to the Mayor of the City or the City Councils. We have to organize parents and change the teachers’ mentality”.
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| Near the entrance of DSNI, many brochures about the basis of human lives like emergency call, English education or health education are distributed. |
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| Inside of the building of DSNI., there is moss green themed very calm and comfortable space. |
I think DSNI's challenges and efforts in the past have been achieved now. But yet, there are many problems to be solved. Especially, with the children in the infant stage now, if it is too late the problem will be solved in 3 or 5 years.
With the long-term vision, DSNI is working to solve urgent issues. I will take notice of DSNI in the future.
