Hey Lauren,

I was thinking about your idea of documenting skills and progress of youth. I had worked on related ideas at a previous job, but never got to implement them. I really like the idea of having an analog to merit badges and ranks in the boy/girl scouts. It provides youth something tangible to mark their growth and offers a chance to celebrate achievements. Also, by having both individual 'badges' and class/ranks you can bundle skills. Say for example you wanted to move from a green wrench to a yellow wrench, you would have to not only get your 'badge' for brake and derailleur adjustments, but also a social component (Introducing yourself & others) and a general skills (computer related, inventory?). This could capitalize on bike programs as an opportunity to engage in broader education, particularly if you could find community partners willing to donate trainings.

David

David Coppley Walk n' Roll Program Assistant Intercity Transit 360-705-5817 PO Box 659 Olympia, WA 98501 dcoppley@intercitytransit.com Find us on Facebook!

-----Original Message----- From: thethinktank-bounces+dcoppley=intercitytransit.com@lists.bikecollectives.org [mailto:thethinktank-bounces+dcoppley=intercitytransit.com@lists.bikecollectives.org] On Behalf Of thethinktank-request@lists.bikecollectives.org Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 5:57 PM To: thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: Thethinktank Digest, Vol 92, Issue 28

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Today's Topics:

1. Earn-a-Bike documentation and reporting? (Lauren Warbeck)
2. Instruction for Marginalized Communities: Women on Wheels and Multilingual Nights (Lauren Warbeck)
3. Re: Earn-a-Bike documentation and reporting? (DancesWithCars)
4. Re: Earn-a-Bike documentation and reporting? (Lauren Warbeck)

Message: 1 Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2014 14:35:52 -0700 From: Lauren Warbeck lauren.warbeck@gmail.com To: The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org Subject: [TheThinkTank] Earn-a-Bike documentation and reporting? Message-ID: CAAr69eVf7QH_toU1Syq6XjFtKKuYZiWtyS+g8YvMxtQoK3xyhA@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Hey Folks!

When not immersed in planning an Ohio-themed Bike! Bike! fundraiser dance party (!!!), I'm actually doing other for real work. Including the exploration of formats, documentation, and reporting for our youth volunteering and Earn-a-Bike programs.

Here in British Columbia, high school students are required to complete something like 30 hours of work experience (ie free labour) to graduate, and we get a lot of youth completing this requirement at our shops. We also run pretty informal Earn-a-Bike programs for youth who are in unconventional education settings, accessing social services, in alternative programs, or can't access our in-school programming for any variety of reasons. Lots of these kids are really focused on getting a job, but we can rarely accommodate that.

I'm in the process of creating a checklist/worksheet of mechanical and interpersonal skills acquired by youth as they volunteer in our spaces. The idea is that it would include gradients of skill, becoming increasingly more complex as time goes on. It would be used to guide their time in the shop, and also document what they've learned. It would be the youth's responsibility to fill the checklist out over time and have staff sign off on it, and when it's completed, we would write them a letter of recommendation to be used in applying for jobs, school, whateva.

So....do yall have anything like this in place? Or any other relevant Earn-a-Bike or alternative youth programming materials I can creep and reap?

SEND THEM TO ME!

Thanks buddiez!

Lauren @ OCB