In March, our Project FOCUS Out-of-School Time Program Site Coordinator at Edgewood Elementary School in Muskegon Heights, Marla Baldwin, met Ann Gersh, one of the Board Members of Groundcover News at a conference.
As Ann and Marla talked about their respective jobs and what they each did, Marla was intrigued by the innovative approach Groundcover News, considered a “street newspaper,” takes in creating opportunities and a voice for low-income people, while taking action to end homelessness and poverty. These all seemed to dovetail very nicely with the goals of TrueNorth Community Services.
Groundcover allows for low-income residents of Ann Arbor, many of whom are homeless, the opportunity to make money as vendors; the folks who sell the papers on the streets. This cuts down on panhandling and empowers low-income individuals to make the transition from homeless to housed, and from jobless to employed. They are currently the only print newspaper in Ann Arbor.
After a few meetings with Groundcover Publisher and Director, Lindsay Calka, they came up with a novel idea. It would give Groundcover vendors a chance to help kids read, and for kids to get to know the vendors. The Groundcover Online Reading Project was born. They recorded the first vendor participant, Joe Woods, reading a story about bears called; “Breaking News: Bear Alert” that was shown to Project FOCUS students at the Edgewood Elementary. The students enjoyed it so much, they ended up creating original artwork based on the story they heard. They then had the opportunity to meet Woods in person and show him their drawings when he and staff from Groundcover made a visit to the school on July 19.
The students were thrilled to both meet “Mr. Joe” and see their original artwork in the newspaper, and each student got a copy to take home and show off. The Online Reading Project is an excellent example of outside-the-box-thinking and shows what can happen when like-minded partner agencies come together.