Iowa City Summer of Solutions

06/03/2014

Hello friends,

After much deliberation, we, the program leader team with Iowa City Summer of Solutions- Laura, Lilly, and Eli- have made the difficult but necessary judgement to call off this year's program.

We lost one program leader a few months ago to work and school commitments and Lilly was accepted to an overseas internship that she will be leaving for in a few weeks. We have had very little time to meet as a team in the past several weeks due to school, family, and work issues. And to add to all that we have had several grants fall through leaving us without essential funds and have not had time to properly respond to all of our dozens of amazing applicants.

While we are upset that things did not turn out the way we had planned this year, we remain optimistic that the program may be revived next year or some time after that, although it's much too soon to say at this point.

To all those who have been so supportive of us throughout the years: THANK YOU, and we hope to work with you again some day.

Stay Solutionary, Iowa City.

05/09/2014

WOW! The big news for the week is that we have been awarded a $2,500 social justice grant from our friends and gracious program hosts at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City (UU), AND that tomorrow is our last official bit of recruitment in the community!

This weekend holds a lot of reviewing of applications and responding to applicants, fundraising efforts, and the planning of our launch week. Lots to do. Oh yeah, and our program officially starts one month from tomorrow.

Here's a picture of some of last year's crew eating a local lunch at the UU! Yummm...

05/07/2014

The word from the future is that we are a big part of what will truly define Iowa City for generations to come!

Tonight we were mentioned in a very creative story about Iowa City, told from the future. According to the University of Iowa Office of Sustainability Writer-in-Residence Jeff Biggers, we are part of what helped to transform Iowa City into an "Ecopolis" in 2014.

Want to help this transformation take place? Want to build a more just and sustainable community? There is still to join us this summer! Applications are still being accepted until May 19- you can apply asap at http://www.iowacitysos.org/get-involved/.

05/05/2014

Wow it's been a busy couple of weeks! This last week specifically we have been amplifying our outreach efforts in a last push for applicants before the official application window closes May 19.

Today was exciting because we started reviewing all the applications that we received as of the priority deadline last night! Throughout the next two weeks we will be responding to nearly two dozen amazing applicants!

The countdown to Iowa City's Summer of Solutions 2014 is on: 5 weeks from tomorrow is Launch Week- can you believe it?? We can't. Lots of Solutionary work to be done but we could not be happier to do it!

We're especially looking forward to volunteer Fridays at Friendly Farm, haha, can you tell from all of our photos?

04/22/2014

This article talks about many of the important issues we are trying to address through our Iowa City Roots community gardening and food justice initiative! Really putting down roots in the community and working for comprehensive change is what we believe the spirit of today is all about. And of course, that's not to say that it doesn't apply every other day of the year as well. :p

Happy Earth Day everyone!

"Growing more food in the city is not the solution to food access, nor is it the one and only way to address injustice in the food system. But the act of cultivating crops, along with the community activities that take place within these spaces, can make a difference by giving people greater control over the food system and by demonstrating how political, economic, and social patterns that perpetuate inequality can be weeded out. Bringing these patterns to the surface is one of the most important contributions urban agriculture can make to improving the food system -not only for locavores, but for all those who need to eat."

For some farmers and gardeners, particularly those in low-income neighborhoods, urban agriculture is a means to a more ambitious end: an attack on...

04/22/2014

Hello all, we have some important news to share! First off, we have over two dozen applicants thus far and that in itself is amazing! A HUGE thank you to all of the amazing folks who have applied, we only wish we could accept and fund every one of you!

The other IMPORTANT news that we have to share is that we have decided to EXTEND THE PRIORITY DEADLINE to SATURDAY, MAY 3 by 6PM CST. We have been doing some outreach to local organizations to let all sorts of potentially interested folks know about the opportunity to join our program, but we just haven't done enough of this. (And we chose Saturday because our program leader meetings have been rescheduled to Saturday nights due to new scheduling conflicts on Monday nights.)

And because all that text needs some visual balance and because we all could use a laugh, here is a magnificently hilarious photograph of last year's program leader Nick planting beets barefoot at Friendly Farm- the amazing local farm where we spend most of our Volunteer Fridays.

Thank you so much for your patience and support, everyone, this program truly could not exist without you!

04/14/2014

Our posters should be slowly popping up around town in the coming weeks- keep an eye out!

Also, just a friendly reminder that our priority deadline is one week from right about now- that is, Monday, April 21 by 5pm CST. We have already received nearly a dozen applications but we are aiming for a whole lot more, so get those applications in folks!

04/04/2014

Our incredibly talented program leader Fidencio has been hard at work on some promotional pieces for us. This is the result of his cut-paper magic, based off of our logo and a picture from a Volunteer Friday at the farm last summer!

All the more reason to apply now! Hehe check out http://www.iowacitysos.org/get-involved/ to learn more and apply soon!

04/02/2014

We will be talkin' at United Action for Youth tonight about our program and how youth (ages 14-30!) can get involved. We are very excited and even updated our flier with the new application deadlines for the occasion!

03/27/2014

We have had several applications come in this past week and are growing more and more excited with every one- keep 'em coming folks! Questions? Post 'em in the comments below or shoot us an e-mail at [email protected] we'd love to hear from you!