Ski programs molding better lives for those living in Salt Lake City’s west-side communities

Posted on February 27, 2020 by comm5775

Story by MARTIN KUPRIANOWICZ

Voices of Utah 1

Children living on the west side of Salt Lake City enjoying the snow and cross-country skiing. Photo by Peter Vordenberg

It’s Saturday. The sun is shining and snow is on the ground. Parents are dropping their children off at Mountainview Elementary in Salt Lake City and the kids are already exploding with excitement — they are going on a field trip. Juan Gilberto Rejón — or “Coach Juan,” as those in west-side communities refer to him — is patiently waiting outside of the school to take roughly 50 elementary students to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge to view a population of wild eagles on this day.

Coach Juan is the founder, executive director, and coach for the Hartland Community 4 Youth & Families, which is a program that aims to create pathways to college for the underserved by getting students involved in the outdoors. Coach Juan started this program because he believes the experiences earned in the outdoors are valuable ones that can set children up to better handle adversity throughout their lives.

On weekends throughout the school year, Coach Juan often takes students on excursions to participate in a wide variety of outdoor activities, from bird watching to skiing. Recently, cross-country skiing has been a big emphasis of the program.

“It’s a blessing for our underserved and our underprivileged because they wouldn’t be able to do it otherwise. It’s too expensive,” Coach Juan said. “For a family of five or six to go skiing at $200 a pop, that’s already over $1,000 being spent for just a day of skiing. There’s just no way these families living in poverty could afford that.”

His ski program is partnered with the Utah Nordic Alliance that takes students cross-country skiing on weekends in the winter. Another partner is She Jumps, an organization that motivates women and girls of all backgrounds to step out of their comfort zone in a fun, non-threatening, inclusive environment to learn outdoor skills.

Coach Juan’s program has been operating for three years, but his inspiration to get students involved with the outdoors goes back almost two decades to the birth of his son.

Voices of Utah 2

Coach Juan pictured outside of Mountainview Elementary, the meeting place for students going to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Photo by Martin Kuprianowicz

“When I first moved into a 300-bedroom apartment complex here (on the west side) there were a lot of things happening that were not safe for kids. We had a lot of robberies, carjackings, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, so as a community advocate I had to do something for my child,” Coach Juan said.

What began as a mission to improve the quality of life for his child then translated as improving the lives of everyone in his community, especially vulnerable children on the west side of Salt Lake City. Coach Juan started a community soccer program that would eventually grow into a multifaceted, multi-partnered community outdoor program for youth.

The program focuses on helping students to pursue higher education. Coach Juan’s son went through it. Now, his grandchildren are enrolled. Hartland Community 4 Youth & Families has since grown and is now partnered with the Utah Nordic Alliance, headed by former two-time Olympic ski racer Peter Vordenberg.

Vordenberg coaches ski racers who have won gold medals in the Winter Olympics and World Cup championships. In addition, he helps Coach Juan organize the single-day cross-country ski trips by providing students with everything they need to go skiing.

But he didn’t always plan to be a community advocate. It all started by chance one day when he was invited by a friend to tag along with the kids on one of these ski programs.

“I was out there hanging out with all the kids and with Coach Juan and I was like, ‘Oh man, I got to be more involved, not just take pictures but I got to see what I can do to help out.’ So, I joined the board,” Vordenberg said.

Vordenberg has been on the Hartland Community 4 Youth & Families board for three years. He says that his favorite thing about being involved with the program is watching the kids develop a love for skiing and the outdoors. “It really builds their confidence and helps them dream bigger,” Vordenberg said.

Another opportunity for the west-side youth is the Parks and Recreation program that is affiliated with world-class ski areas Brighton and Snowbird. The Northwest Recreation Center is one of many centers throughout the Salt Lake Valley  that shuttle elementary and middle school students to those ski areas and provide them with gear, lift passes, and instructor training.

Snowbird Mountain School Director Maggie Loring has run this program on Fridays in the winter for 18 seasons. She said programmatic goals include developing new skiers and riders who may be interested in one day working as staff at the resorts, and providing a community service to children who may not otherwise get the opportunity to enjoy winter sports.

“One anecdote I can share is that the current manager of our programs was initially in our 4th-grade program, became a junior instructor, and kept going. It’s really an opportunity for resorts to capture both new guests and new staff,” Loring said in an email interview.

However, the impact of these programs is also a lot simpler than getting kids involved with the outdoors and setting them up for potential life paths in the ski industry.

“One of my favorite things about this program is the opportunity to see the kids pour out of the buses so excited to get onto the mountain,” Loring said. “Many of them may not be able to sleep the night before because of how excited they are for this new adventure. I remember from my own childhood how excited I was to get out of school to go skiing!”

Voices of Utah 3

It’s nothing but smiles when the kids get off the bus and go skiing. Photo by Peter Vordenberg

Filed under: Education, Environment, Health & Fitness, Immigrants & Refugees, Nonprofits, SLC's West Side, Sports & Recreation | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Connecting people with education: the Glendale Community Learning Center is driven by community

Posted on February 27, 2020 by comm5775

Story and photo by MEG CLASPER

From kindergarten to 12th grade students trudge down the halls of public schools. From class to class, teacher to teacher, students rely on those halls as pathways and safe spaces. Where those halls end, the halls of the Glendale Community Learning Center begin.

Nestled between Mountain View Elementary and Glendale Junior High, the Community Learning Center (CLC), at 138 Navajo St. in Salt Lake City, serves as a community and learning hub for the surrounding neighborhoods and schools. With four classrooms and six kitchens, the CLC creates programming driven by community needs.

Out of these programs, many are focused on helping parents of the community interact with the school system. English as a Second Language classes, also known as ESL classes, help non-English speaking parents communicate with school faculty and staff who may not speak the same language. Other courses provide parents with skills to better engage with teachers and administrators. A weekly meeting, held on Friday mornings, has also been set up for parents to meet directly with faculty and teachers of the schools.

In January 2020, the CLC hosted one session of the “Late Start Listening Tour” put on by the Salt Lake City School District. It allowed the Board of Education to hear community members’ thoughts and concerns about the current school system and a possible late start for high schools.

In addition to encouraging these meetings, the CLC offers classes to community members that are life-skill based. One class, Food Justice, focused on the sharing of cultural and family recipes. Each session emphasised a few common ingredients such as rice and noodles and encouraged attendees to pick recipes using those ingredients.

With collaboration from different community members and students at the University of Utah, these recipes have been compiled in a cookbook titled “Savor: Stories of Community, Culture, and Food.” The book shares the stories of how communities are built around food. This cookbook is sold online and at the CLC.

The CLC’s six kitchens are also open for community use. “You can go in [the kitchens] in the morning and see moms talking over coffee or making smoothies for teachers,” said Jennifer Mayer-Glenn, a previous administrator at the CLC.

Other than skills classes, the center offers courses to help adults prepare for applications and tests. For example, one tutors community members for the citizenship test. And the “Know Your Rights” course was started in 2016 in the middle of a spike in fear about immigration issues. It teaches adults what rights they may not know they have.

With its proximity to the elementary and junior high schools, the CLC is a big part of how both operate. “We consider it as part of our school,” said, Kenneth Limb, principal of Mountain View Elementary, in a phone interview. He works directly with the CLC on a daily basis and said appreciates the programs it offers.

Working

Students receive help with all types of homework in the Learning Lab.

After school, students from the elementary and junior high are able to cross the fields to the doors of the CLC. There they are able to take part in the after-school Learning Lab. Here 60 students connect with volunteers from the University of Utah to receive help with homework. Enriching activities are offered too. Science experiments and other subject-related visuals are planned to help students better grasp the concepts. The Learning Lab also serves as a safe place for students to remain until adult family members are able to pick them up.

In addition to the Learning Lab, the CLC offers courses to help students fill out Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms, apply for scholarships, and fill out college applications. With this help students are able to feel more comfortable when it comes to approaching college. For those who want to move toward the workforce, courses are available to help individuals create resumes and cover letters.

Limb said activities not directly connected to the schools are available to students. While they are able to take sewing and cooking classes, social-skills courses are built to guide students through real-life situations. What youth get out of these courses are knowledge and skills to be able to deal with strangers, ability to work with adults and formally introduce themselves. By helping students interact with the outside world they are better prepared to enter it.

Many events are also planned by the CLC to help connect the community to the schools. According to many posts on the center’s Facebook page, it holds meetings between parents and the Salt Lake City School District, holds back-to-school celebrations for students, and promotes events at East High School.

With both schools and the CLC working together students are made to feel welcome and important when it comes to education. The connection enforces opportunities and the importance of education, no matter what hall students may be in.

 

Filed under: Education, SLC's West Side | Leave a comment »

Glendale-Mountainview’s Community Learning Center is a tool for academic success

Posted on February 27, 2020 by comm5775

Story and photo by NINA YU

After a six-hour day of absorbing math, language arts, and social studies, most students are ready to head home to catch a break. However, as soon as the bell rings, the Glendale-Mountainview Community Learning Center starts seeing kids filing in for another round of learning.

The Glendale-Mountainview Community Learning Center (CLC) is a place for students to go after school for tutoring, and includes a wide range of other educational and artistic activities. According to a brief description on the Salt Lake City School District website, a CLC, “is a philosophy, a place, and a set of partnerships between a school and other community resources. The CLC model builds on the core instructional program of a school by adding educational and life skill enrichment for the entire family and [removes] barriers to learning by providing necessary social services.”

Essentially, this center is a safe space for kids to catch up on school and learn life skills with the home economic programs. It can even be an early-preventative method against turning to negative influences.

The CLC works with a long list of community partners that all have a commitment to enhance the services in five areas: quality education, personal development, community development, family and community engagement, and family support.

“We get a lot of value supporting students. Their worth is important especially since a lot of them don’t have a support system at home,” said Keri Taddie, the CLC coordinator. “Even if it’s at someone’s home, there can be language barriers or parents have late work schedules, so what we do at the center is help these kids and build a long-term relationship. Students that participate in this program tend to be with us long-term. We watch them grow up.”

The CLC has multiple community partners that help kids with tutoring and homework. One of them is the University of Utah’s Utah Reads (originally America Reads). Utah Reads is a program within the Bennion Center that tutors elementary school children with learning how to read. Utah Reads’ mission is to provide quality, one-on-one tutoring for elementary students at Title 1 schools in the Salt Lake district. Utah Reads’ tutors are trained college students who are placed at any of the sites that the program partners with — Glendale-Mountainview CLC being one.

“Each site is student-run. We do one-on-ones every week and the student leaders take care of scheduling, assessments, placements, and tutor management,” said Asma Hassan, the program manager for Utah Reads. “At each of our sites, we try to work with whatever makes the child unique. The CLC is one of the sites that is more unique, because of the Learning Lab. It’s more helping with homework and for those who need it, we even offer later hours.”

There are about eight to 10 tutors assigned to each site. Since the CLC is both a space for Glendale and Mountainview students, 16 tutors are assigned to the site. Utah Reads works on building a mentor relationship with the students who are struggling in school. The tutors’ goal is to catch those who are struggling at an earlier age so they can proceed with their peers accordingly.

Along with Utah Reads, the CLC also has partnerships with programs such as Big Brother Big Sister, Bad Dog Arts, and Discovery Gateway.

The Learning Lab at the CLC.

On average, the CLC sees about 55 to 65 kids participating in the Learning Lab daily. There are about 90 kids weekly. According to CLC coordinator, Taddie, most of the kids who come to the CLC are elementary school children, ranging from first to the fourth grade. Not only does the center provide literary tutoring and homework help, it also has many after-school programs such as music, math club, home economics, and sports.

Most of these programs and partnerships are free for the students, except for the Mountainview After-School Program and the Glendale Community Education Program. The After-School Program is held five days a week for three hours and 15 minutes a day until 6 p.m. and it helps parents know that their child is in a safe environment while they’re at work. The program charges $40 a month, but families are eligible for reduced fees and beyond that, there are also fee waivers.

The Community Education Program is the biggest one in the district and oversees the after-school programs. The program is for parents and students who need a consistent space. The fee is $50 a year, but the reduced and waived fees still apply.

“Fees are a barrier,” Taddie said. “What you see happen is that kids will see that there’s a fee and they immediately put the flyer away. They don’t ask questions. They don’t ask if there are options for them.”

For some students, the educational and art programs are so memorable they come back and volunteer when they’re in high school or college.

“I definitely recommend that students take advantage of the Learning Lab and any other programming at the CLC,” said Kenneth Limb, the principal at Mountainview Elementary, in an email interview. “All CLC programs are enriching and support academic and social/emotional learning.”

The teachers, counselors and administrators all support and promote students’ attendance of the Learning Lab and the other programs. The CLC is located at 1388 Navajo St. and wedged in between Mountainview Elementary School and Glendale Middle School.

Filed under: Education, SLC's West Side | Leave a comment »

Planting a seed: how to grow your own educators in Salt Lake City

Posted on February 26, 2020 by comm5775

Elizabeth Montoya, left, writing a note about an event to Maricela Garcia, who is pictured with her daughter Karen Sanchez Garcia at the Glendale Mountain View Community Learning Center at 1388 Navajo St., Salt Lake City.

Story and photo by IVANA MARTINEZ

The concerto at the Glendale-Mountain View Community is ongoing. It begins with a chorus of students shuffling to class, kissing their parents goodbye at the early morning drop-offs and continues several hours after school finishes. And it wouldn’t be possible without the orchestra of people who ensure the children get the resources they need. 

With severe teacher shortages in Salt Lake City, the University of Utah’s Neighborhood Partners has teamed up with schools around the west side in Salt Lake City to address this issue through the program Grow Your Own Educators (GYOE). 

According to the Grow Your Own Educators 2018-19 annual report, the program provides a framework for parents and community members to teach at Title 1 schools. Title 1 schools are defined by Salt Lake City School District as schools that have a high concentration of low-income students who receive federal funds to assist in meeting students’ academic needs. 

According to the report, GYOE has been working closely with a cohort of 12 paraeducators from Salt Lake City School District during the 2018-19 school year.

The program has paraeducators participate in eight training sessions once a month where they sit down and study topics that correlate with Utah state standards. 

Paraeducators can be found in the halls of Mountain View Elementary School reading with students. They can be found in the Glendale Middle School helping teachers in their classrooms. Or, they can be found at the Community Learning Center (CLC) in the kindergarten rooms. 

Ruth Wells has been a paraeducator for the last five years. Wells’ pathway into education began with a desire to be involved in her children’s lives. “I wanted a way of being home when they were home,” she said. 

“I decided that helping a teacher in a classroom would be the perfect way of still being a part of education,” Wells said, “while still being able to take care of my kids the way I wanted to take care of them.” 

For other paraeducators, like Myrna Jeffries, a teacher who migrated from the Philippines, becoming a paraeducator was a way to continue her career here in the United States. Jeffries was recruited one day while walking around the neighborhood by Elizabeth Montoya.

Jeffries began working for only a few hours a week until she asked to take on more responsibilities at the school. JShe began going to the CLC and into the elementary school to assist teachers and help students. 

The most challenging aspect of the work, Jeffries said, is communicating with the students. According to the Utah Department of Health, one in seven Utah residents speak another language, and one-third speak English less than well. Communication barriers are often present for community members at the CLC, but Jeffries said she works around that by using body language to overcome the barrier. 

The Beehive 

Most people in the community know family-school collaboration specialist Elizabeth Montoya, who has worked at Mountain View Elementary for the last 16 years. On most days, students and parents will see Montoya riding on her large blue tricycle around the Glendale area carrying food or binders in her rear storage basket for a program. Montoya recruits parents or members around the community to come in and help out with activities occurring at the Glendale-Mountain View Community. 

Montoya’s specialty is acting as the community’s megaphone. She ensures families know about opportunities and programs that are offered. Her job is connecting parents to resources that help them partake in their children’s education, or advance  their personal and career ambitions. Montoya creates connections with parents and informs them about programs such as GYOE. 

“That’s what we want,” Montoya said. “We want to educate people in the community.”

If Glendale were a hive, Montoya would be the queen, said CLC Program Director Keri Taddie. Montoya has worn many hats throughout the years and created educational opportunities for parents, such as Padres Comprometidos. The program connects Latino parents to these schools by providing a pathway to invest in their child’s academic success and continue their own as well. 

“They’re our children and we should invest in their school too,” Maricela Garcia said in Spanish. She began volunteering at the CLC when her oldest daughter started preschool years ago. 

“I would go help the teacher check homework or have the kids read with me,” Garcia said. 

Although she isn’t currently a paraeducator, she actively engages and participates in the Glendale-Mountain View Community. 

Language barriers haven’t stopped her from volunteering either. Despite the fact that she didn’t speak English at the time, she had students read to her in English. Garcia then began coming to the community meetings at Mountain View Elementary even before her daughters began attending the school. 

Garcia, who is currently taking a leadership class at the CLC, wants parents to know about resources available for their children. She wants them to feel empowered to learn about their options — whether they have legal status in the United States or not. 

A leading obstacle, Garcia told Voices of Utah, is that Latino parents don’t have adequate information about post-secondary education. She said many of them don’t believe it’s possible for their children to go to university because they don’t have scholarships. 

With programs such as GYOE, there are pathways for parents, young adults and community members to have access to new professional development in their lives. Because many paraeducators come from various backgrounds with education, the initiative grants access to paraeducators to work toward teacher licensure.  

“Many students can keep studying. And there are many opportunities for everyone,” Garcia said. 

The importance of the community background is pivotal to the Glendale community, which has a high concentration of students from diverse backgrounds. An understanding of a student’s culture provides context to support and foster their educational pathways. Because many of the paraeducators come from within the community, it establishes a unique understanding of how the community works. 

“I think that we’re always trying to pull back from that part of the community,” CLC Program Director Keri Taddie said, “and bring those strengths into the school because they have relationships and cultural knowledge and community knowledge that we don’t always have.”  

The Glendale community doesn’t run by itself. It’s an entire ecosystem composed of volunteers, parents, educators and paraeducators who prioritize education and make sure that students are benefitting from the educational system.  

“Sometimes people say, ‘Oh thank you for all you do,’” Montoya said as she shook her head. “No. We do it together. I don’t do it myself.” Montoya recalled a saying from her mother about a community of bees and how it takes a whole beehive to make a lot of honey. 

Filed under: Education, Hispanics & Latinos(as), SLC's West Side | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Do new high-rises address affordability on the west side of Salt Lake City?

Posted on February 26, 2020 by comm5775

New apartments on N. West Temple.

Story and photos by SPENCER BUCHANAN

The economy is growing and unemployment is at its lowest level in a generation. But many working-class people are feeling the squeeze. Salt Lake City has been greatly benefiting from the high economic growth of the last five years. But according to KUTV, some lawmakers say many residents are feeling pushed out by rising home costs. With rising real estate prices, research from the University of Utah shows that some people fear Salt Lake City will start to experience housing crunches like San Francisco or Los Angeles. To meet with rising home shortages and prices the government of Salt Lake City is pushing new high-density housing developments. These boxy, four- to six-story buildings can be seen going up all over the city. A number of these developments have already come to the west side of Salt Lake City and many more are planned.

The Deseret News touted high-density developments as a way of increasing affordable housing especially, in high-growth areas.

Ivis Garcia-Zambrana is a professor in City and Metropolitan Planning at the University of Utah and vice-chair of the Planning Commission in Salt Lake City. She says that the government of Salt Lake City is actively encouraging new high-density developments through a points-based building permit system, which fast-tracks apartments with affordable units by circumventing administrative reviews by the city planning commission and city council.

“Ideally, as a developer, you avoid all kinds of public meetings. What you do is have an application that follows all the rules … you put in an application that seems so good that you get extra points,” Garcia-Zambrana said.

More points are given to projects that are high-density and have affordable units. She said this system cuts months off a developer’s project time and shows the active encouragement of the city to build high rises. But does high-density housing address affordability issues?

“It’s either too expensive or it’s too small. So it’s pushing out families. So, gentrification is definitely happening on the west side of Salt Lake right now,” said Jennifer Mayer-Glenn, director of the University Neighborhood Partners (UNP) and resident of the west side of Salt Lake City.

“The Salt Lake School District is losing about 1,000 students a year to families having to move out of Salt Lake City because they can’t afford to live in Salt Lake City anymore,” Mayer-Glenn said.

She said affordable housing is a major concern for the residents of the west side. Mayer-Glenn ceded that many of the high-density developments are affordable, but they lack community involvement in the building process.

Garcia-Zambrana said high-density housing doesn’t address the “cost-burden” that many homeowners on the west side experience.

“Cost-burden” is when a resident pays more than 30% of their net income into housing. Garcia-Zambrana is actively studying the west side. In her research, she found residents in the Fair Park and Jordan Meadows neighborhoods, where many of the new high-rise apartments have been built, are not cost-burdened. But residents in Glendale and Rose Park, where the majority are homeowners, the neighborhoods are experiencing housing cost difficulties.

According to Zillow, rents in Salt Lake City average around $1,500 up from the average $1,200 rent in 2015. Salt Lake City has average rental rates compared to the rest of the nation. Areas mentioned by Garcia-Zambrana, Fair Park and Jordan Meadows, have even lower rents. But rent prices and values in Salt Lake City have significantly increased in the last five years. The average Salt Lake City home value today is at over $400,000. While areas on the west side have lower home prices, floating in the high $200,000s, these homes can still be a cost-burden. This is why many renters and owners are starting to move out of the west side and the city altogether.

“For the prices in Salt Lake, they can own a home somewhere else nearby. That’s where you can see some of the idea of displacement,” said Garcia-Zambrana. “Planners are very concerned about cost displacement, but it’s not easy to quantify as you have to know why each person is moving and there are a lot of factors. People may be ‘displaced’ but may not feel disenfranchised (pushed out of their neighborhood), just that they simply moved.”

The Overniter Motel, site of the future SLCRDA Spark! project.

An example of Salt Lake City planners addressing cost and displacement concerns is the Spark! project located at 1500 W. North Temple. This upcoming housing development being built by the Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency (SLCRDA) is planned to have 200 apartments with 50 designated as affordable or below-market-rate.

“We wanted to mesh housing, commercial, and open space. So there’s a balanced approach to it. So there’s a coffee shop but also a daycare. So it’s serving the community. And we try to focus on local businesses,” said Amanda Greenland, communications and outreach manager for the SLCRDA.

Projects like Spark! and Salt Lake City’s fast-tracking of high-density projects with affordable units show the city’s efforts to address rising housing cost. High-density housing, though, doesn’t address the cost-burden issues felt by homeowners on the west side. The cost of owning a home there is increasing, which is leading to much of the ire felt by longtime residents. High-rises in Salt Lake City are being built with affordable prices in mind but not with the ownership that many families look for. As the city grows and property values increase, homeownership on the west side may become a thing of the past.

Filed under: Business, Politics, SLC's West Side, Utah's Economy | Leave a comment »

Hartland Partnership Center has kids dancing into their future

Posted on February 26, 2020 by comm5775

Story and photo by KATHRYN A. HACKMAN

The University Neighborhood Partners (UNP) Hartland Partnership Center.

As the last school bell rings at Mountain View Elementary and Glendale Middle School, 15 to 25 kids make their way to the University Neighborhood Partners (UNP) Hartland Partnership Center. This is their weekday routine, with afternoons full of experiential learning and creative fun. However, once a week, this creative fun is taken to an entirely new level.

Every Tuesday throughout the year, you can find Kelby McIntyre-Martinez, the program director of professional development at the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Arts Learning Program, leading a high energy dance and theater class for the Hartland kids.

Through these performing arts classes, the children can talk about social justice, immigration, identity and cultural differences. This is all thanks to the safe outlet of expression that the arts can provide.

“The arts at Hartland transcend language. They transcend background. As a class, we may not fully understand each other, but we are still creating together,” McIntyre-Martinez said.

She describes an afternoon spent at Hartland as “loud, boisterous and “smiley.'” It’s a time that calls participants to live in the moment. It’s an hour that is full of nonstop energy. “The work that I’m able to do at Hartland is just joy,” McIntyre-Martinez said.

However, this reciprocal bond between the University of Utah and west-side residents didn’t always exist.

In 2003 the University of Utah and west Salt Lake City’s diverse neighborhoods were nothing more than cordial acquaintances. Although they were neighbors in the Salt Lake Valley, their interactions were minimal. That all changed in 2004 with the creation of the UNP Neighborhood Partnership Center.

UNP decided the best way to connect with the west side was to move into the Hartland Apartments, which many Glendale residents called home. 

This newly founded collaboration set out to empower the community, 75% of whom are non-native English speakers, through building university connections and promoting education. They began to offer English language instruction, mental health support, citizenship classes, employment workshops, and educational resources.

This campus-community fusion was designed to ensure that those living in the area had access to a wider range of local resources. Over the years, that’s precisely what they’ve done.

With rapid growth and community involvement, UNP eventually moved into a larger building right across the street.

“The role of UNP is to bring together community residents with the University of Utah, and surrounding organizations,” said Jennifer Mayer-Glenn, the director of UNP.

She said that the greatest enablers for those living on the west side are caring communities, quality teachers and schools, cultural services, and places of belonging.

While UNP offers these educational programs for adults, it certainly hasn’t forgotten about the kids.

The UNP Hartland Neighborhood Partnership Center offers a year-round after-school youth program for the children living in the nearby apartments.

UNP’s model is about being involved with the children and investing time into programs that create pathways to higher education.

Abdullah “Tuna” Mberwa moved from Kenya into the Hartland apartments in 2003, one year before UNP became his neighbor. He was one of the first children to experience UNP’s after-school program. Today, he’s the youth center coordinator.

His experiences allow him to connect with the kids in a very unique way. “I don’t want them to just look at me as the program coordinator, but as a mentor,” he said. Not only does he take on the role of mentor, but also that of a tutor.

Hartland staff like Tuna, and occasional volunteer students from the U, can provide the academic and language support that the children may not receive at home.

Homework is a challenging task for students all across the United States. But for the children at Hartland, there’s an added level of complexity. Many of the students come from countries in Africa, South America, Central America, and the Middle East. Therefore, English is not the primary language spoken among their families.

The academic support that UNP provides is crucial.

But after a studious hour well spent, the kids get to let loose with a university partner. These partners — like McIntyre-Martinez, who also is on faculty at the U — are experts in their craft and teach classes in subjects like art, yoga, and science.

On Tuesdays, the children often rush to get their homework done because they know “Miss Kelby” is coming to dance with them.

Through dance, the children can bring their stories and backgrounds to life and blend them with the arts. Together the students fuse their worlds and create original works.

She ends every class by asking the students if there is anything, they’d like to teach her. A few lessons ago, she said three boys from Mexico showed everyone a song from home. Another time she had two boys teach the class a dance from Burundi.

The arts are a crucial part of the after-school youth program. As McIntyre-Martinez said, ”It creates a space where students feel welcomed and valued. It creates an area where you don’t need to speak the same language to come and jam.”

Not only does her class expose the Glendale children to the arts, but also higher education.

One of the courses she teaches at the U is called Theater for Social Action, which takes place at Hartland. Her college students ditch their textbooks for the afternoon and instead experience what teaching in the arts is really like.

They spend the semester working with the children at Hartland, co-creating, and bringing art to life. Both the students and the children end their 16 weeks of preparation with a performance at the Sorensen Unity Center where they receive the applause that every artist seeks.

This exposure to the collegiate world allows the children at Hartland to envision a future in college. 

Over the past 12 years, McIntyre-Martinez has seen the direct impact that Hartland has had on the children living in west Salt Lake City. She knows this reciprocal model that UNP has works because she sees some of her Hartland kids grow up to join her on the university’s campus as college students. She said, “We’re now reaping the fruits of this awesome partnership.” 

Filed under: Arts, Entertainment, Culture, Education, Organizations, SLC's West Side | Leave a comment »

Keith Lopati, West High School’s outstanding softball coach

Posted on February 26, 2020 by comm5775

Story and photo by HUNTER THORNBURG

When West High School in Salt Lake City is searching for a new head coach for any of its athletic programs, it creates a selection committee through which all potential coaches will interview. The committee contains two student guardians, two staff members, one of the school administrators, and the athletic director. All potential hires receive the same questions from the committee, and the process is competitive.

Coach Keith Lopati in his West High School office.

Out of this selective procedure came West High School’s Varsity Softball Coach, Keith Lopati.

Lopati is a special education teacher, working specifically with the behavior unit at West High. He is heading into his eighth year of softball coaching in Spring 2020. Lopati strives to connect with his athletes and does everything he can to help the student-athletes get where they want to be. For him, it all starts with establishing the coach-player relationship.

He added that after the relationship and trust is built with his athletes, he focuses on what they’re hoping to achieve as a student-athlete, whether that be playing at the collegiate level, or simply just concentrating on self-improvement.

Lopati said, “My coaching style is really being able to build a rapport with all of the athletes that I come in contact with, whether it be female or male, and starting from there and working the ground level up.” He added, “The approach is really just to get to know them and build that relationship with them in order to understand their needs, and then go from there.”

Over the years he has coached at West High School, he says he has been fortunate to have worked with all sorts of individuals — from the top-tier athletes to those students simply looking to be a part of a team.

Student-athletes say he has significantly impacted them on and off the field.

Daisy Taloa, a senior at West High School, said Lopati is good at holding the athletes accountable and making sure they are always on top of their school work. She said he is an involved coach too. Despite keeping the athletes in line academically and athletically, Taloa also mentioned that Lopati has established engaging and fun conditions for the girls to play softball in.

Taloa said, “When we had to put pressure on ourselves to make sure our performance was our best, we’d do it, but it was fun. You didn’t ever feel like you didn’t want to play softball anymore, and he made the environment a good environment for you to want to stay in.”

Taloa added that Lopati has helped her improve as an athlete and as a student. She will play collegiate softball on a full-ride scholarship for Grand Canyon State University, located in Phoenix, following her senior year.

Another senior leader and future collegiate athlete on the team is Kensey Lopati, the coach’s daughter. Like her teammate Taloa, Kensey said her dad is involved as a head coach, and focuses on making sure the student-athletes are doing the right things on and off the field. However, Kensey said that when the girls make mistakes during practice, Lopati calmly brings it to their attention and teaches them the way to correct it.

Regarding Lopati’s approach, Kensey said, “His coaching style really is: if we want it, we’ll go get it. He’s just here teaching us and giving us the tools to succeed.”

She said that thanks to the guidance of Lopati, as a father and a coach, she will go on to play collegiate softball on a full-ride scholarship for Salt Lake Community College following her high school career.

Lopati’s success connecting with the athletes, and guiding them to triumph has not only been recognized by the student-athletes, but also by West High School’s athletic director, Rachel Townsend. She has been in the position for three years, and pays close attention to the many athletic programs the school, located at 241 N. 300 West, offers. Although she was not the athletic director when Lopati was hired, she says she’s not surprised the committee decided on him.

Townsend agrees with the student-athletes and their assessment of Lopati. She appreciates the fact that he holds the athletes accountable on and off the field.

“He has created an environment that makes people want to play here, people that aren’t really familiar with the sport. He’s also created an environment where the students know that what they put in is what they get out of it,” she said.

Townsend said Lopati has successfully coached several athletes to the collegiate level, both at Division 1, and junior college. Some of the athletes currently playing college softball include Huntyr Ava at Brigham Young University, Keisha White at North Carolina State, and Jazmyn Rollin at the University of Missouri.

Lopati won 5A state championships with his team in 2017 and 2019, and also won Coach of the Year in those seasons. Townsend attributed this success to his extensive knowledge of the game, and his ability to effectively convey that knowledge to the student-athletes.

As the 2020 season approaches, Lopati says he is planning to keep up the momentum and will continue to make efforts to connect with his athletes in order to guide them to successful futures.

Filed under: Education, SLC's West Side, Sports & Recreation | Leave a comment »

Poplar Grove church is a symbol of diversity and service

Posted on February 26, 2020 by comm5775

Story and photo by JACOB RUEDA

In the heart of Poplar Grove lies St. Patrick Catholic Church, a haven of spirituality for the residents of this area of Salt Lake City. The parish located at 1040 W. 400 South serves not only as a host to communities from different parts of the world, but also as a steward in one of the roughest areas of town.

Father Anastasius Iwuoha hails from Nigeria and began serving as pastor of St. Patrick parish in August 2016. Before arriving at St. Patrick, he served in various parishes around the Salt Lake Diocese. He calls the difference between where he served previously and St. Patrick “glaring.”

While serving in another parish, “if you came to any of the masses, if there is any single person that is not Caucasian, you would spot the person immediately,” Iwuoha says. The range of nationalities represented at the parish is the most diverse he’s seen during his time in Salt Lake City. “St. Patrick’s is uniquely multiethnic, multiracial,” he says.

Built between 1916 and 1919, St. Patrick Catholic Church served European Immigrants. Image courtesy of St. Patrick Catholic Church.

In its early days St. Patrick served Italian and Irish immigrants to Utah, according to the Fall 2019 issue of The West View. Today, the cultural makeup includes people from the Pacific Islands, Myanmar, Philippines and Africa.

Rita Stelmach, 60, noticed the changing demographic of parishioners. She has attended St. Patrick since she was 19. “We have the most different mixture of cultures at St. Patrick’s,” Stelmach says.

Anthony Martinez, director of religious education and youth ministry, says some communities outgrew the parish and established themselves elsewhere. For example, the Vietnamese and Hispanic communities either built their own parish in other parts of the Salt Lake Valley or they settled in other parishes.

This May 24, 1919, article from the Salt Lake Tribune shows the old parish and the newly constructed church. Image courtesy of St. Patrick Catholic Church.

Salt Lake Diocese Bishop Lawrence Scanlan established St. Patrick in 1892, when it was originally located at 500 West and 400 South. The Salt Lake Tribune reported in April 1916 the purchase for the grounds where the church is today. Scanlan’s successor, Joseph Sarsfield Glass, bought the property from Bothwell & McConaughy Real Estate and Investment Company for $6,000 ($140,728.62 in 2019 value).

The parish experienced a number of events in its history, including fires in 1924 and 1965 that gutted the church but did not destroy it. In July 2019, St. Patrick celebrated its centennial and unearthed a time capsule containing fragments of the old parish, photographs and newspaper clippings.

Throughout its history, the parish has served the local community in different ways.

“We opened our hall and the hall was the center for the neighborhood meeting for a long time,” Iwuoha says. The parish served as neutral ground for town hall meetings where even the police came to participate. “They [came] here to decide the fate of the whole neighborhood,” he says.

In addition, church outreach projects focus on helping the homeless population in the area. Organizations like the Daughters of Charity and the Knights of Columbus work in conjunction with the parish, says director Martinez. They provide aid and donations for distribution to individuals experiencing homelessness. Likewise, students from J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic High School donate food items during Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Martinez grew up in Poplar Grove and recognizes some of the stigma surrounding that area. “I’m beyond proud of where I come from,” he says, adding that people who are unfamiliar with the neighborhood judge it based on news reports and not direct involvement with those who live there.

Iwuoha echoes that sentiment, saying that his experience is different from what others told him it would be. “The impression I got when I came here was, here are a humble people, humble and vibrant people,” he says. “That’s my own personal treasure, not the one I got from [others].”

Roadsnacks.com reports the neighborhood around the church is one of the less reputable areas of Salt Lake City. However, statistics from December 2019 from the Salt Lake Police Department show a drop in overall crime.

The parish works to promote a “spirit of peace and good neighborliness” in the area through participation in church and local events as well as Sunday sermons. “When [people] come to church and when we preach and teach, they go back and become good citizens and good neighbors,” Iwuoha says. Additionally, the summer carnival brings the neighborhood together to show support for the church and the community.

The parish faces challenges despite community support. The structure of the main church and the surrounding buildings are crumbling due to age and wear. Cracks that are haphazardly patched are visible in the church walls and there is water damage from flooding. The biggest problem facing the parish is money.

“The greatest challenge St. Patrick’s has now is where to raise funds to replace some of the very aging and dangerous structures we have,” Iwuoha says. “The basement is virtually crumbling and the building is at risk.” The exact cost for repairs is unknown. The parish was able to repave its parking lot but “at a very huge cost,” Iwuoha says.

St. Patrick Catholic Church continues its tradition of diversity and service. Image by Jacob Rueda.

Setbacks aside, parishioners gather each week in the spirit of worship and community. In its 128-year history, people have arrived at St. Patrick from all over the world to call it home and to share the one thing they have in common.

“St. Patrick’s Church is the house of the Lord where everyone is welcome: believers, non-believers, Catholics, even non-Catholics,” Martinez says.

Iwuoha says it is a sense of shared faith, a duty to service and pride in America that brings people together to celebrate the spirit of the parish. “They have pride in the nation,” he says. “All of us are American.”

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