Registrations now open Southside Community Center Summer Camp

The Southside Community Center Summer Camp will be starting up on July 9th and will run until August 17th.  The program runs half day (Noon-5pm, extended care until 5:30pm) Monday through Thursday and full day Fridays (8:30am-5pm, no extended care on Fridays).  Registration forms & information are available at the Southside Community Center and online at https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bxr5GtfAKRAZeDFWVkpaTm5nZ1E

Southside Community Center Juneteenth Celebration!

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration of the legal emancipation of enslaved Black people in the United States.  Not only is it a celebration of remembrance of the rich history of African American’s in this country, but also a celebration of our achievements in the continued struggle against oppression.  Many communities celebrate for a day, a week, and even a month hosting celebrations, guest speakers, picnics and family gathering.  In communities around the world people of all races, nationalities and religions are combining efforts to acknowledge a period in our history that shaped and continues to influence our society today.

WE NEED YOU AND YOUR FAMILY TO MAKE THIS EVENT MEMORABLE FOR OUR COMMUNITY

The Southside Community Center will host its annual Juneteenth Celebration on Saturday June 23rd.  We need many volunteers; most shifts only last two hours and begin at 7:30am for set-up and conclude by 8:00pm for clean up.  Come to the festival and then work for a shift.

Set-Up (7:30 am – 11:00 am)

Set-up tables, chairs, sound equipment

Festival Staffing (11:00 am – 6:00 pm)

Bounce House

Snow Cone Machine

Cotton Candy Machine

Face Painting

Print blocks

Mask making

Paper woven Kente cloth and other crafts

Clean-Up (6:00 pm – 8:00 pm)

Break-down tables/chairs

Break-down food machines and bounce house

Trash Clean-up

If you are interested in volunteering your time for set-up, to assist with staffing an activity, or you have an activity to share please contact Petula McBean Thomas with the following:

      NAME

      TIME/S YOU CAN WORK (between 7:00 am and 8:00 pm)

      VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY OR ACTIVITES YOU ARE INTERESTED IN

      PHONE NUMBER

      EMAIL

Petula McBean Thomas

Southside Community Center

Phone: 607-273-4190

Email: pthomas@sscc-ithaca.org

After dedicating more than 6 years of service as the Southside Community Centers Executive Director, Mr. Olan Mack will be leaving us to take over as Executive Director of the Westcott Center in Syracuse, NY.

The Southside Board of Directors have chosen Dr. Nia Nunn-Makepeace to serve as Interim Director at the Center until a permanent replacement is chosen.  Nia has had a long association with the center through the Community Unity Music Education Program’s (C.U.M.E.P.) Summer Camp, which is hosted here at the center, serving as the Camps Director.  She also works Beverly J. Martin Elementary School, and teaches at Ithaca College.

Wish her a warm welcome to our historic center by sending her an e-mail at Makepeace@sscc-ithaca.org

The Southside Community Center would like to introduce and welcome two new additions to the family.

Mr. Dave Brown (DBrown@sscc-ithaca.org) has just come on board as our new Unity Studio Coordinator, replacing Dani DiCiaccio and will be at the Center Monday – Friday from 2pm – 7pm.

Ms. Nagiane Lacka (NLacka@sscc-ithaca.org) has also come on board as our new General Programs Manager, replacing Kirtrina Baxter, and will be at the Center Monday – Friday from 1pm – 7pm

Please feel free to contact them either via e-mail or by calling the center during their respective hours at 607-273-4190.

 

The Southside Community was recently featured in a documentary produced by some Ithaca College students for a class.  Here is the end result below, featuring interviews with longtime residents of the Southside community as well as staff of the Southside Community Center.

Flowers Grow On Cleveland Av.: The Southside Community

Beginning this Friday, April 6th, and for the duration of the School District spring break (until April 13th) there will be NO Southside Afterschool program.  Parents please make proper arrangements for your children.  Any other programs at the center (Hoop Troop, Computer Lab, etc.) Will run as regularly scheduled.  Afterschool will resume on Monday, April 16th.

The Cornell Healthy Pet Clinic has been a long-running staple of the programs and activities here at the Southside Community Center. Recently, The Cornell Healthy Pet Clinic took it’s show on the road and traveled down to the Bronx in New York City to offer the same services that are typically offered here at the center to residents of that area. Below are a couple of Youtube Videos documenting the experience. Don’t forget that our own Cornell Healthy Pet Clinic happens the 2nd & 4th Wednesdays of each month from 6pm-8pm at the Southside Community Center Gym.

In case you haven’t noticed it there are a couple of tabs that are peeking above the menu on the right hand side.  Those include links to an RSS feed, our Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube.  We just uploaded new pictures to the Flickr page and a new video to our YouTube so go on and take a look.  As always we welcome feedback.

Southside Community Center’s Black History Month Expo:
Strengthening Community Through the Loss of Shawn Greenwood

Please join us on Sunday February 26th at a community expo/party, as we celebrate the life of Shawn Greenwood. February 23rd is the second anniversary of Shawn’s death. He was a friend, son, and father taken away by police violence in our community. We would like to celebrate his life, while by no means forgetting the way in which he left us. This will be a space to gather people to remember him, and recall the times that were shared in addition to reflecting on what community means and the ways in which we can strengthen it.

There is a need to come together to address and fight injustices, and also become responsible for the well being of each other. Especially after loosing more young people to police violence, such as Tkeya Harris, Corey Henderson, and Keith Shumway. We aim to create spaces to connect, have fun, and foster dialogue in order to identify and address problems that are prevalent in our community. These include, but are not limited to, police brutality and profiling, recidivism, poverty, racism and how these factors work together to keep people separated and oppressed. The issues in our communities will not be solved by increasing police presence, but rather through coming together, getting to know each other and working together to enact larger structural transformation. This transformation is dependent upon the dialogue, education, and the action of members of the Ithaca community.

Please join us as for an evening of music, food, art and hand on activities. There will be:

Music provided by DJ Split Image
Food provided by La Cocina Latina Catering and more
Information station (Zines, newspapers, posters)
Photography by Nydia Blas (including personal work & a photobooth!)
Self-definition station (picture & poem creation for kids and adults)
Silk-screening (bring and old t-shirt!)
Arts & Crafts for kids
Performance by EDGE IHS dancers
Testimonies about what community means to YOU!

Just a reminder that the Southside Community Center will be closed tomorrow, 2/20/12, for presidents day.  Also, with schools closed this week for mid-winter recess the Southside afterschool program will be running special programming from 9-5 from Tuesday to Friday.
For more information contact Kirtrina Baxter, programming coordinator, at 273-4190 or knacker@sscc-Ithaca.org

Well, great news and some kind of confusing news.  First off, the new Southside Community Center website is officially up and running and available for browsing.  You’ll notice more specific menu options above, our Twitter and Facebook links to the left, and our constantly updated Google Calendar to the right.

Now for the confusing part….

Seems that while Vinnie Sierra, Computer Lab Coordinator and keeper of all things geeky was in the process of designing the site, he found an interesting glitch.  Seems that http://sscc-ithaca.org leads visitors to the new design, BUT http://www.sscc-ithaca.org still takes you to the old site.  So while things are being sorted out we encourage everyone to use and refer people to the http://sscc-Ithaca.org (without the “www” in front.

While there’s sure to be more kinks to be worked out, we will work diligently to make sure that all of the centers information will remain up to date and available to everyone.

It’s time to get busy once again at the Southside Community Center.  Check out our Google calendar to the right for a full list of all the programs along with their days/times that they occur.  You can click on the above headers to see more detailed information about any programs you may be interested in.  As always, like us on Facebook and Follow us (@SSCCIthaca) on twitter to stay up to date on the lastest happenings.