Even “the 20/20 Vision Guy” has to Practice what he Preaches
Posted on February 7, 2010
20/20 Vision executive director Jeremy Del Rio confesses on his personal blog how he wasn’t practicing what he preached until this fall, when his son enrolled in PS 102.
It’s time for a confession. Even before launching 20/20 in 2008, despite being known is some circles as the 20/20 Vision guy, my work on education reform was mostly theoretical. My passion was real, but day to day, aside from designing and architecting 20/20, my personal involvement actually living 20/20’s engagement paradigm was non-existent.
Why? I haven’t run a community group or helped lead a congregation in almost four years, which means I couldn’t commit an organization to adopt a school for service and advocacy. Nor have I been involved in direct youth work since 2005, so I couldn’t directly empower student leaders to become change agents within their schools. Finally, until this year, my son attended private schools, so engaging a school as a volunteer was difficult.
Then this fall everything changed.
Within weeks, he was tutoring ESL students in his son’s classroom, and before the Christmas break he helped start a journalism club with the parent coordinator and another volunteer parent. They launched a student blog last week, and fourth graders are discovering their voice as they learn to live life out loud.
Jeremy is just one parent (of potentially 2 million) who was activated by 20/20’s Vocational Calling to use his talents and access as a parent to add value to a local public school. What’s your story?
» Filed Under case studies, jeremy del rio, matrix, parents, vocational calling | Leave a Comment
20/20 Architect Jeremy Del Rio Now Executive Director
Posted on January 2, 2010
20/20 Vision for Schools proudly announces the hire of its lead architect and visionary Jeremy Del Rio, Esq., as its first executive director, effective January 1, 2010. Jeremy previously served 20/20 as a strategic planning, organizational development, marketing, and program design consultant since its inception in 2007, and has championed the movement through our September 2008 launch and first academic year.
This decision to hire Jeremy aligns with the Action Plan crafted with the input of 120 multi-sector leaders convened on September 18, 2008, for “An Urgent Appeal to Engage a Generation at Risk: Helping Everyone Reach their Highest Potential.”
Executives from the business, government, religious, education, and social sectors – including Newark Mayor Cory Booker; former congressman and pastor of Allen Cathedral Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake; former president of the Girl Scouts of America and founding chair of the Leader-to-Leader Institute Francis Hesselbein, Former Philadelphia Mayor and Amachi founder Dr. Wilson Goode, Service Master founder William Pollard, and many more – gathered explicitly “to initiate an actionable plan and model to help New York City school-aged youth reach their highest potential.” Organizations represented included the United Federation of Teachers, Teach For America, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Cornell University, New York University, Deutsche Bank, M&T Bank, WMCA Radio/Salem Communications, Dow Corning Corp., Princeton Theological Seminary, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, American Express Business Travel, The West Paces Hotel Group, World Vision, Latino Pastoral Action Center, Pomeroy Capital Hedge Fund, and others.
Together, they concluded that America’s crisis in public schools is first and foremost a crisis of leadership. A systematic refusal to accept accountability for chronic underperformance has permitted decades of institutional failure, which has placed current and future generations at risk of social unrest and decay. Comprehensive reform requires multi-sector, collaborative strategies led by men and women willing to commit, as Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children’s Zone says, “to fix this problem … to put politics aside and do what’s right for America’s children.”
Students who began first grade in September 2008 are the high school graduating class of 2020 – the generation for whom 20/20 intends to make good on the promise of public education. But to manifest sustainable, systemic change requires catalytic and creative leaders who are empowered to champion the movement moving forward. The consensus of 20/20 Vision’s founding partners, The New York City Leadership Center and The Coalition of Urban Youth Workers, is that Jeremy Del Rio is such a leader, and we welcome him into his new role.
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$25K from Salem Communications and Curtis Sliwa
Posted on December 22, 2009
Thank you to Curtis Sliwa, the upcoming morning host of 970 AM The Apple, and Salem Communications for their $25,000 grant to 20/20 Vision for Schools, presented this afternoon at their Empire State Building studios.
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Christ Tabernacle Presents Operation Backpack 2010
Posted on October 7, 2009
A case study of how one church served an adopted school in a meaningful way.
Video 1
Christ Tabernacle members donate backpacks for every student at Bushwick’s PS 151. Recap and highlights:
Operation Backpack 2009 from Christ Tabernacle on Vimeo.
Video 2
PS 151 Principal Jeanette Sosa thanks the members of Christ Tabernacle for their generosity.
Operation Backpack: Principal of PS 151 Jeanette Sosa from Christ Tabernacle on Vimeo.
» Filed Under best practices, case studies, christ tabernacle, operation backpack, videos | Leave a Comment
Wisdom of a 5th Grade Solomon
Posted on September 30, 2009
Sojourners features 20/20 Vision for Schools’ Advisory Board member Dr. Nicole Baker Fulgham on their God’s Politics blog today. She recounts an experience as a first year teacher in Compton, CA, when a 10 year old challenged her:
“Aw c’mon Ms. Baker, nobody thinks we’re smart! If they did, they wouldn’t give us this broken down school and these ratty old books. You don’t even have enough paper and pencils for us!”
As Teach For America’s Vice President of Faith Community Outreach, Ms. Fulgham has spent the last 15 years fighting to overcome educational inequity. Why?
The academic achievement gap, in a well-resourced country like ours, is a tragic moral injustice that should move people of faith to action. As Christians, let’s take stock of how we’re working to eliminate this problem. Are we encouraging our most talented college graduates and young professionals to teach in schools like Solomon’s? Are we mobilizing our church communities to volunteer, tutor, and provide much-needed supplies to under-resourced schools? Are we mobilizing on behalf of students like Solomon to demand that lawmakers create policies that will improve the quality of their education?
The Bible is pretty clear about our responsibility. God says that all children were created in his image, so we should believe every child has unlimited potential. God says that children are incredibly precious to him. And God tells us to eliminate injustice. It’s time for Christians to take a stand on behalf of the ‘least of these’ in our nation’s low-income public schools. Solomon and his classmates are waiting for us.
» Filed Under advisory board, education reform, nicole baker fulgham, sojourners, teach for america | Leave a Comment
Back to School with 20/20 in the News
Posted on September 16, 2009
This month, two local newspapers and a national magazine profiled 20/20 Vision for Schools as part of their back-to-school coverage.
In New York, both city-wide Christian monthlies published “Why Public Schools Matter to God (and Should Matter to You Too),” a column that makes the case to pastors and faith leaders why literacy and education reform are issues requiring their leadership and congregational investment.
Outreach magazine, one of the nation’s most widely circulated Christian magazines, profiled 20/20 in their “Going Public” article about reimagining how churches can engage public schools.
Here are excerpts and links to both articles.
// “Going Public,” by Dave Urbanski, with Sidebar by Jeremy Del Rio, Outreach (Sept/Oct 2009)
A growing number of congregations are learning that outreach to public schools doesn’t mean tearing down an iron curtain or diving into a sea of protests and lawsuits. There’s very little to figure out, invent or dream up. In fact, apart from discovering and meeting the schools’ needs, everything else—spiritual conversations, church attendance, rsion experiences—happens naturally.
[They] have discovered the painfully obvious truth that the church has a credibility problem in America, and if churches have any hope of influencing lives within schools, they have to meet the schools on their terms. This starts with serving with no strings attached — along with an open ear to helping schools overcome their biggest stated obstacles.
// “Why Public Schools Matter to God (and Should Matter to You Too),” by Jeremy Del Rio, Tri-State Voice and Love Express (Sept 2009)
How many eighth grade Bible studies lead with Lamentations? Or Leviticus?
Yet last I checked, Lamentations and Leviticus are part of the Biblical canon, along with Romans and Revelation and lots of other heady reading material.
Should it matter to pastors then that average graduates of America’s city schools read at eighth grade levels?
If pastors believe Scripture, then absolutely it should. Romans teaches that spiritual transformation occurs by renewing the mind according to the Word of God – not at altar calls or church services. Besides being ill-equipped to compete in an information economy, where the currency is fluency with words, how likely are poor readers to engage the written Word?
Regardless of whether literacy matters to pastors, it matters to prison wardens. States allocate prison construction dollars based on fourth grade reading test scores.
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Going Public
Posted on September 16, 2009
The comment below was published as a Sidebar to a feature article called “Going Public” in the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of Outreach magazine, and challenges churches and youth groups to think differently about Campus ministry. How is your youth ministry engaging the public middle and high schools nearest your church this year?
Download the article pdf here.
In September 2008, Jeremy Del Rio launched 20/20 Vision for Schools in New York City with one idea in mind: What would happen if church leaders activated the people in their churches for “good deeds” within public schools?
Since then, the ministry has connected with nearly 200 churches throughout NYC boroughs, mobilizing them and community groups to come alongside public schools for meaningful advocacy and service.
Here, Del Rio shares how 20/20 Vision has succeeded and why he believes churches are called to this backyard mission field.
If the moral test of a society is how it treats children, America has failed the same test year after year for decades. Specifically, we have failed to educate the urban poor despite promising equal access to quality education for all. This educational inequity–where the place of one’s childhood determines the quality of one’s education–has been called our nation’s greatest injustice and the Civil Rights issue of our day.
And churches have watched it happen.
As we looked at what it would take to accomplish comprehensive reform, we knew it would require multi-sector, collaborative strategies led by men and women willing to commit. And churches are uniquely positioned to lead this effort.
First, the God we preach requires us to care about justice (Micah 6:8, Isaiah 61:1-8). The prologue to Proverbs 31’s Wife of Noble Character describes the Bride of Christ at her most noble: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:8-9).
Second, Jesus activates us as salt and light, that the world “may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16). Salt that loses its preservative and flavoring effects–or remains inside the saltshaker of our churches–is useless.
20/20 Vision is bent on activating churches. Our vision is that first graders of September 2008—the graduating high school class of 2020—would reverse decades of chronic underperformance and graduate in record numbers, equitably across demographics and neighborhoods, with the skills and character necessary to achieve in life.
Mobilizing congregations for scalable engagement requires a plan, and 20/20’s school adoption paradigm moves congregations from no relationship to holistic, transformative relationships. It begins by committing to pray for a specific neighborhood school as often as the church prays. If America’s 300,000 evangelical churches actually prayed for its 100,000 public schools, dare we expect God to answer?
It continues as congregations overcome generational mistrust by cultivating personal relationships at the school. Next, churches become answers to prayer by responding to felt needs with meaningful acts of service such as beautification efforts or event sponsorships. Then they develop an ongoing presence by volunteering as coaches, mentors or tutors, or coordinating leadership clubs. Finally comes the credibility to affect policy both at the school and district level.
To date, nearly 200 New York churches have adopted schools through 20/20. Together, these churches have open-sourced a multi-sector effort to transform education in America. Because the problems are too vast for one person, group or community to overcome on its own, sharing ideas, best practices, funding solutions, evaluation methodologies and reform strategies represents the best way to engage the best minds in transforming public education in this country.
If it’s “about the kids,” 20/20 reminds us to share.
And to lead.
–Jeremy Del Rio
ONLINE: JeremyDelRio.com; 2020Schools.net
Rev. Jeremy Del Rio, Esq. is the lead architect of 20/20 Vision for Schools.
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Goliaths Fall When Students Lead
Posted on September 14, 2009
Goliaths fall when adults like Saul get out of David’s way.
The Biblical character David was an untested teenager, a shepherd boy with no military training, when he simultaneously proved to be the only man among soldiers courageous enough to confront the giant Goliath.
For 40 days, Goliath’s taunts paralyzed Israel’s army with fear. Then David overheard the mockery, witnessed the cowardice of the adults around him, and was moved to action. The rest, as they say, is history.
On Saturday, 12 student leaders rejected the contradiction that “student leadership” events could only be led by adults, and hosted 68 student leaders for the first student led student leadership conference in my memory of 21 years of youth ministry and youth development here in New York.
I was blown away by their poise, dedication, and — yes — leadership, despite inexperience and a lack of proven models for what such an event could look like. I was also impressed by the dozen adults who voluntarily stepped back to follow their lead, and provided the support necessary to allow them to shine, especially the visionaries at Latino Pastoral Action Center whose generosity and innovation made the day possible.
I’ll be posting more about Kickin’ It Old Skool throughout the week. Stay tuned. Meantime, check out some Twitter highlights from the event (including Twitpics and more) here.
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Kickin’ It Tweets
Posted on September 14, 2009
For the first time, a 20/20 event was covered real time via Twitter. Some of the highlights.
Via @jlopez219
// “Death was mine to face but You took my place in Love…” -Beyond Barriers twitpic.com/hiz7t
// Now on Stage at “Kickin it old Skool” in NYC… Beyond Barriers! twitpic.com/hivhq
// “Mercy & Grace” from Sunset Park Bklyn are leadin us in some tight worship! twitpic.com/hispn
// Just acted a fool on stage tryna do some old skool break dancin… I ain’t never break danced in my life! Haha ☺
// Chillin at da “Kickin’ It Old Skool” Concert (16st n Irving St. NYC) If u in the city come thru! twitpic.com/hieji
// Sound ✔ for the “Kickin’ It Old Skool” Concert 2nite at 7pm (16th n Irving St. NYC) If u in the city come thru! twitpic.com/hhoq4
// On my way 2 the “Kick’n It Ol’ School” Youth Conference in NYC… @beyondbarriers in Concert 2nite at 7pm
via @jeremydelrio
// No, its not obnoxious for me 2brag abt my lil bro. Jon kicked it old skool for real w his msg. Bro makes u laff as his words pierce deeply.
// Props to LPAC, UKYM, XCEL, No Limits, Gr8r Heights, CitiVision for trusting uth 2lead. Well placed trust. 2020schools.net/kickin-it
// twitpic.com/hitef – Nu skool leadership at Kickin’ It Old Skool. Leadership requires courage &these studnts hve it
// Nu skool leadership at Kickin’ It Old Skool. These kids shine like stars (Phil 2). twitpic.com/hi5ab
// Sound ✔ for the “Kickin’ It Old Skool” Concert 2nite at 7pm at on 16st n Irving NYC. Come thru! twitpic.com/hhoq4. Via @jlopez219
// Final prep for the 1st student led studnt leadrship conf in my 21 yrs of uth work. History is hard work. 2020schools.net/kick…
// Goliaths fall when adults like Saul get out of Davids way. 9/12: NYCs only student led studnt leadrship conf 2020schools.net/kickin-it
via @GabrielM23
// Here@the Kickin It Old Skool Concert which is the ending of a great day of empowering this generation to make a difference in their world!
Via @dsanabria
// hey all you amazing ppl out there come out to washington irving h.s. on 14st for a free concert at 7 PM!!! (via @CrossoverYM)
// @ the Kickin’ it old Skool student led conference! yfrog.com/0o2btvj
// It Kicks off at 10 am Be there!! 2020schools.net/kick… Registration is free!! Tell Everyone you know!! See you there!
// 9/12/01 a 26 y/o lawyer was changed THERE tinyurl.com/jrd911. 9/12/09 students will be changed HERE 2020schools.net/kick…
// 1day til NYCs only studnt led studnt leadrship conf. Goliaths fall wen adults like Saul get out of David’s way. 2020schools.net/kickin-it
// Check out the only student led student leadership conference in New York City. su.pr/1EtCnf (via Youth Specialties @YS_Scoop)
Via @pleaseexchange
// golly, whataday. still got some hw, s’all good though. Great things are 2 come with Kickin’ It Old School! thanks @jeremydelrio
// LogosRHEMA is lethal. Still at Kickin it Old School.
// @ a panel on youth leadership. Kickin it old school, watchout (in George lopez voice)
// Kickin it ol school= awesome. Loving this small group. <3
// Is @ kickin it old school! Making moves for student leadership!
// Big day tomorrow. Kickin’ It Old School @ Washington Irving High School! If you’re a student that wants to see REAL CHANGE, come through!
» Filed Under concerts, events, kickin it, student leadership, trainings, twitter | Leave a Comment
The ONLY student led, student leadership conference in NYC?
Posted on August 25, 2009
All of us in youth development aspire to empowering students to actually lead. Rhetorically, it’s why we do what we do. Jesus called it making disciples and put it in his Great Commission speech right before he left his own disciples to run things. History records the advantages as every major social movement has been fueled by young people.
But too often we adult leaders stand in the way of youth actually leading. Usually it’s unintentional. Busy lives, lack of planning, mistrust — lots of reasons conspire against releasing real authority to students.
On September 12, that changes … at least for one day.
Join Latino Pastoral Action Center, the Coalition of Urban Youth Workers, Urban Kingdom Youth Ministries, CitiVision Inc, Generation Xcel, Greater Heights, and 20/20 Vision for Schools for Kickin’ It Old Skool, the first student led, student leadership conference (and concert!) in recent memory.
Bring your student leaders, and be challenged along with us to make real student leadership a regular part of youth development and student ministry.
It’s the only way to change the world.
Related
+ Embrace the Mess: Why Youth Must Lead Now
» Filed Under events, kickin it, lpac, student leadership, trainings | Leave a Comment
