ABC Community Hub at Paris Elementary School Site Visit

Session Type: Off-Site Visit

Abstract

This site visit will unveil a layer of voices as it pertains to school closure and the possibilities that have been birthed at the ABC Community Hub and that can be birthed in other closed schools being repurposed across the country. Attendees will experience the vision of the ABC Community Hub rooted in social determinants of health, while learning about this phenomenon of school closures to rebirthed spaces from elected officials, district personnel, community leaders, youth and beyond.

Dr. Janiece Mackey created the nonprofit Young Aspiring Americans for Social and Political Activism (YAASPA) at 25 years old. Nearly 12 years later, her organization was working within an elementary school that the school district decided to close. She was running a coalition with Black folks and decided to birth the ABC Collective which is a collective leadership model to put in a bid in winter of 2022 to steward the building of a community hub rooted in social determinants of health.

In surrounding districts, there have been a cluster of schools closed. One neighboring school district closed 25 schools. School districts in the surrounding areas are navigating ways to partner with community leaders in order to address the potential displacement of communities while bringing them back to a new birth of spaces that can become their own again.

Site Visit Program: Each session will include a discussant and panel of scholars, school district personnel, elected officials, community organizers, nonprofit partners, and youth.

8:15 AM: Transportation on your own
8:30 AM to 9:00 AM: Check in and Continental Breakfast
9:00 AM to 10:00 AM: Historical and Sociopolitical Context of a Youth-led Nonprofit – Navigating Public Procurement of a Closed Elementary School within Aurora Public School district
10:10 AM to 11:10: The Landscape of School Turnaround and Closures in Surrounding School Districts
11:20 AM to 12:20 PM: School Closures in Nexus with Remedy and Repair with Displaced Communities Toward Freedom Dreaming
12:30 PM to 1:00 PM: Final Tours and Networking
1:00 PM to 1:30 PM: Transport on your own back

Participants can reach the site by public transportation, Lyft, Uber or carpool.

Sub Unit

• Spotlight on Denver and the Region

Visit Leader

• Janiece Z. Mackey, Young Aspiring Americans for Social and Political Activism

Participants

• Antwan Jefferson, University of Colorado - Denver

• Kalonji L. Nzinga, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Kelly Mitchell, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Michael Giles, Aurora Public Schools

• Franklin A. Tuitt, University of Connecticut