article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)
The Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes celebrates inspiring, public-spirited young people from diverse backgrounds all across North America. Established in 2001 by author T.A. Barron, the Barron Prize annually honors 25 outstanding young leaders ages 8 to 18 who have made a significant positive impact on people, their communities, or the environment.
The top fifteen winners each receive $5,000 to support their service work or higher education. Applications are accepted online only and are due by April 15, 2017.
For more information, visit www.barronprize.org/apply
Posts tagged as “public service”
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Mos Def has never been afraid of a good scrap. The rapper is involved in a new fight, and it’s against New York City and their controversial stop-and-frisk policy. Teaming up with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Mos Def released an anti-stop-and-frisk PSA video.
In case you don’t know: stop-and-frisk is deemed controversial because it allows police to search any individual without reason, other than “probable cause.” Critics say that it unfairly stops Black and Latina people, and the stats back this claim up: according to a study released in February, 97 percent of people stopped in New York City were either Black or Latino.
In Mos Def’s video, we see all the disturbing stats, plus some footage of an anonymous police officer talking about some of the NYPD’s dirty polices. In the background, you hear a new Mos Def track called “Don’t Tread on Me.”
Read more: http://globalgrind.com/news/mos-def-dont-thread-on-me-stop-and-frisk-psa-video#ixzz2UBLYH7ay
WWE and Sean “Diddy” Combs today unveiled a new global anti-bullying public service announcement encouraging kids to stand up to bullying. It will begin airing tonight during Monday Night Raw.
“Bullying is a very serious issue and needs to stop now,” says Diddy in the release. In the video, he says, “In this digital age sometimes it just doesn’t stop when the days end. … If it’s not you being bullied, help someone who is. … Stand up to bullying.”
The music mogul will serve as an ambassador for Be a Star, the anti-bullying initiative co-founded by WWE and The Creative Coalition to encourage young people to treat each other with tolerance and respect.
Combs is also trying to encourage an end to bullying with his Invisible Bully clothing line. The motto there: “The mind is the most powerful tool you possess. Thoughts are invisible and only those that believe in the invisible can achieve the impossible. The dream is real if you believe.”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9Pr1XMJUDw&w=560&h=315]
article by Ann Oldenburg via usatoday.com
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Berkeley Fire Chief Debra Pryor is retiring Dec. 28, 2012 after 27 years in the Berkeley fire department. She was the city’s first woman firefighter, the first woman chief and the second black woman to head a fire department in the nation. (Doug Oakley/Staff)
BERKELEY, CA — It’s a drizzly cold Tuesday evening and Berkeley Fire Chief Debra Pryor is outside the city’s public safety building talking to a homeless man with two shopping carts piled high with possessions. The man loops in and out of lucidity, but Pryor doesn’t appear annoyed, pressed for time or afraid. She listens and talks to him, then politely wraps it up and approaches a second man to ask if he needs help deciphering the front desk hours of the police station.
Pryor, 51, is retiring Friday after 27 years in the fire department and 27 years of smashing race and gender barriers: she was the city’s first female firefighter, its first female fire chief and the second black female fire chief in the country behind Rosemary Cloud of East Point, Ga. (Earlier this year Oakland named Teresa Deloach Reed as its fire chief, making her the first black woman fire chief of a major metropolitan city.)