The Boys & Girls Club is currently running a wonderful new program called SiteSeeing, Making Neighborhoods Visible, authored by Mary deLaittre. The environmental literacy Neighborhood Based Learning is an interdisciplinary curriculum teaching students how to see, read and think critically about the built and natural environment.  It is an in-depth process of envisioning what their neighborhood could be with the intent on improving the quality of life for its current and future residents.  The students take away with them the skills and interest to envision the future of their neighborhoods, wherever they live.

Thanks to the Fund a Need donations at last year's Muse event benefiting the Sonoma  Community Center, the Boys & Girls Club is able to offer the 12 week program to  15 middle school students.  At the end of the program, the group will have prepared a project they will present to City Council about what they feel our community needs. They will also be consulting with a local architect to help with their project.  Both local middle schools, Adele Harrison and Altimira,  are also running the SiteSeeing program through their AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination)classes.

The program is very hands and structured around three basic investigative themes:  what’s there, what’s missing and what could be envisioned for a neighborhood.    The themes are broken down into topics of scale and location including: the neighborhood, neighborhood as part of a larger city, suburb or town and “other” neighborhoods.  Each exercise builds on the previous one. During one exercise, the group went on a walking tour of the Club’s neighborhood, took photos, and studied the various kinds of neighborhoods in the area and how they function.   Another exercise had them create a map of their daily route from home to school. Although many kids lived in the same neighborhoods and in some cases the same home, the maps were vastly different.    

These exercises have motivated the kids to use technology found in the Club’s Intel Computer Clubhouse.  They have downloaded both current and historical maps of the community which are quite interesting. The children are learning about the history of our community and how it was planned. For example, the City of Sonoma was planned using a grid system, versus the surrounding area. One of the next exercises the kids will do is to study the history of Maxwell Park, where the Boys & Girls Club is located.

Program participant Esteban went a step further and used all of the photos from the walking tour and put them to music in the Intel Clubhouse.  We are looking forward to seeing the finished product!