Community for Understanding and Hope

Third Annual CFUH & The Magic House Ice Cream Social

This was a good chance for the community to play and enjoy ice cream together last June 28 at The Magic House.

The Magic House opened their doors for us and free ice cream was provided by Cold Stone Creamery, The Custard Station, and CFUH. Music ws provided by The Scott Laytham and Karl "Trickee" Holmes Duo. We even has free massages provided by Sara Niebruegge Massage Therapy.

To see photos from last year's ice cream social, click here.

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The Art of Living Project

Sponsored by Hope Unlimited, Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri, E3-StL and members of the Kirkwood Community

Young middle and high school age women are encouraged to participate.

Contributions of supplies for projects and food for meetings are needed.

The first of six programs will be at Turner School on June 30

Goals for the program are

• to educate young women about relationship building in the areas of friendship, family, dataing and self-esteem.
• to introduce young women to community leaders to serve as an inspiration and as mentors.
• to bring together community partners to support an environment of understanding and healing.
• to create enthusiasm, fellowship and ownership for their time spent with the Art of Living Project.

You can contact Mary Drummond at (314)225-6622 or ArtofLivingProject@mail.com to learn more about the project or the launch party.

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PEAK (Partnership for Educational Achievement in Kirkwood)

Does your Middle or High School Student have what they need for a successful 2010/2011 school year?

P.E.A.K. is a partnership between members of the Kirkwood Community who want to support the education and success of our youth. Our First Annual Education Fair will be held on Saturday, August 7th and we hope to see you and your student there.

Registration is at noon, with our speaker schedule beginning at 12:30. Please arrive on time so that you can hear the speakers on The College Planning Process, Financial Aid & Funding for Post-Secondary Education, the A+ Program and others. This is a wonderful opportunity for parents and guardians and students, to ask questions and demystify the process of preparing for a post-secondary school career, whether it will include college or other avenues of preparation. Come and join members of the Kirkwood High School Guidance Department, area colleges, health care providers, social service providers, the newly reorganized City of Kirkwood Human Rights Committee, and representatives from many of the enrichment activity programs in our Kirkwood Community.

Flyer

For more information, check their website at http://PEAK63122.org

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DOJ Mediation Agreement

In the wake of the tragic events of February 7th, 2008, a team-oriented mediation process was begun to address concerns expressed by Meacham Park residents. The mediation and resulting agreement was moderated by William Whitcomb of the U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service. Members of the City and Community teams established a partnership with affected residents of Meacham Park and engaged in a series of focus groups to identify the current cultural composition and what issues need to be addressed.

The agreement covers three specific areas. It calls for:

• the City Council to “Empower the Human Rights Advisory and Awareness Commission with the tools necessary to establish itself as a more active and responsive servant and leader in the community, and to increase transparency, efficiency and public confidence in the citizen compliant/request process”,
• creating, expanding and/or focusing on specific Kirkwood Police programs, and
• addressing issues with the home improvement program in the Meacham Park neighborhood that was funded by Tax Increment Financing (TIF).

The agreement and supporting documentation are available on the City of Kirkwood website. The documents there are the press release, the agreement document, and supporting documentation.

A recent series of stories in the St. Louis Beacon reviews relevant history and events in Kirkwood that led to the development of this agreement http://www.stlbeacon.org/content/view/100029/34005/.

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Book Club

Co-sponsored by CFUH and the Kirkwood Public Library. Our goal is to build friendships, increase our awareness and enjoy each other.

The next meeting of the CFUH Book Club will be on Thursday evening, June 24, 2010 at 7 PM. Meeting place is at Kaldis big conference table, Kirkwood Plaza.

The book for June is Best African-American Fiction 2009 edited by E. Lynn Harris and Gerald Early. Leader for this session is Carmen Reed.

Click here for a list of the books we have scheduled to read during the coming year.

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Old Fashioned Picnic in the Park

	We had a great time last August 25 at Kirkwood Park
	We live music from a 70 piece band called After Hours Community Band. We had cookies, watermelon and whatever we brought to eat.

(Click on photos for a larger version.)

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CFUH Community Ice Cream Social at the Magic House

A great time was had by all on June 23, 2009.

Thanks to the The Magic House – St. Louis Children’s Museum
The Scott Laytham and Karl “Trickee” Holmes Duo
Cold Stone Creamery and The Custard Station

Click here to see photos from this event.

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Our Future

On Saturday March 7, 2009 the CFUH Steering Committee held a retreat to discuss the future direction of our group The strongest commitment that came out of the retreat is the Steering Committee’s wishes to continue its work PROMOTING A RESPECTFUL PREJUDICE-FREE community. Another decision was to change of our name to Community for Understanding and Hope. We continue to believe that broadening the level of understanding in our community is of paramount importance. Now we want to focus our organization on building a greater future for all of our citizens. For the time being, we will retain the mission statement we have although we may want to make some modification to that as we adjust our direction in this, our second year.

The Steering Committee has decided on three areas of focus and is establishing committees to work on each of these areas.

Cross Racial Interaction will seek to provide:

• Social interaction among races,
• A safe place for people to tell their stories,
• Involvement of our city's youth in exploring racial interaction,
• Increased awareness of how we view and treat others,
• Development of smaller, less formal racially-mixed groups such as Bridges, and
• Events such as speaker series or forums.

Meacham Park Neighborhood Concerns will seek to provide:

• A united voice for Meacham Park residents,
• Increased efforts to help Meacham Park residents feel more included, and
• Clearer, more concise, and prioritized understanding of the needs of Meacham Park.

Education will seek to provide:

• Reduced achievement gap between races in the R-7 Schools,
• More black teachers and administrators in the R-7 schools,
• Discussions with R-7 Board and Administrators regarding race relations and issues,
• Working relationship with the new Superintendent of Schools in Kirkwood,
• More blacks involved in school committees, and
• Events such as speaker series or forums.

Other possible areas of focus were considered. Some of these are being considered by other groups.

Our intent with this summary is to honor our commitment to you to keep you up to date with our activities and our future direction. All of you remain very much a part of CFUH. We thoroughly appreciate your input and your concern for our future. We cannot do this work without your participation and your well wishes for this group’s success. We honestly believe that if CFUH can succeed, ALL of Kirkwood succeeds on so many levels. Thank you for your continued interest and we will make every effort to keep you up to date on our progress. If you are interested in participating on one of our committees, please send an email to

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February 7, 2009 Session

The program, held at Kirkwood Baptist Church, was based on a presentation of the winning essays from the CFUH Essay Contest. The winners read their essays to the group where the ideas from the essays were discussed. A specially commissioned piece of music, "Canticle of Peace" was sung in it's debut performance.

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Community Gospel Choir

The Community Gospel Choir is a group of people from many different churches and many different parts of the St. Louis area. Through their spirited interpretation of the rich tradition of African-American gospel music, the choir is working to break down racial, cultural and economic barriers in our community. For more information, check out the website at www.communitygospelchoir.org.