Education for Sustainability
At VCI, we see education for sustainability and civic engagement as not only being keys to community building, but also essential tools for problem solving and enhanced well-being at local and global levels. Committed individuals have the power and the responsibility to create the kinds of communities, today, that will define the world of tomorrow.
Many Hands, One World Project
During 2007-2008, VCI partnered with Vermont’s Shelburne Farms Sustainable Schools Project, to introduce Healthy Neighborhoods Healthy Kids, a civic-engagement and sustainable-education program, in two pilot schools in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. For the last three years, with financial support from the United States Embassy in Santo Domingo, VCI has worked side-by-side with Dominican teachers, administrators, and community leaders, to adapt the Vermont-based approach to Puerto Plata schools and communities. Through teacher training, community involvement, civic learning, and youth-leadership development, a local model of sustainable education has emerged within Puerto Plata. Many Hands, One World-Educating for Sustainable Communities is a teaching tool, for Dominican educators, that aligns the national educational goals of the Dominican Ministry of Education with principles and best practices of sustainable education.
The project is now supported, in part, by funding from the Puerto Plata city government, and has been presented at a recent conference of the Ministry of Education, in Santo Domingo. Currently, expansion of Many Hands, One World into other Puerto Plata schools is in the planning stages.
Athletes and Education
Second only to the United States, the Dominican Republic sends more professional players to Major League Baseball’s teams than any other country in the world. For many young Dominicans, baseball is seen as a way out of the poverty they grapple with on a daily basis. As a result, many youth drop out of school in order to train, foregoing the academic, vocational, and social-skill development necessary to become productive adults.
VCI has partnered with Joel Lopez, a former, minor-league pitcher for the Chicago Cubs and current baseball coach, to develop a program model that connects youth-sports programming and academic achievement, to keep kids in school and give them the necessary skills and training to become confident, productive adults, on and off the field.
Local Foods/Healthy Foods
In an effort to improve the quality of school snacks, to teach the importance of good nutrition to children, and to support the local agricultural economy, VCI has developed a pilot project that partners local producers with local schools, supplying fresh produce for children’s snacks in two, Puerto Plata schools. VCI has partnered with Doug Davis of the Burlington Vermont School Food Program, to adapt its successful Burlington model to the challenges and resources of the Puerto Plata region and school system.
Art in the Park—Leadership through the Arts
Recently, local children, community volunteers, and government officials, in Puerto Plata, collaborated with VCI to transform a local garbage site into a community park. Located adjacent to the school, the park has become the heart of the community and a gathering place for children and adults, alike. Local artists volunteered to work with children to create murals, related to the importance of maintaining a healthy neighborhood. VCI is working with these same artists to continue the success of the project, through weekly art instruction for children that introduces and supports ideas of environmental awareness and community value.
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature he finds it attached to the rest of the world." —John Muir
