Service Crew cooks for Columbus House

Service Crew students grew a garden to benefit the Columbus House Homeless Shelter. The pizza that they made out of their organic herbs fed over 70 people!

Letter to Presidential Candidates

Service Crew youth send a video to the presidential candidates telling them what THEY think are important issues in the upcoming elections.

May Field Trip Highlights!

On May 17th, youth enjoyed a beautiful day at East Rock Park. Each child canoed on the Mill River, visited the Nature Center, and hiked to the top of East Rock to enjoy breathtaking views of New Haven.

Please watch this short video from the field trip!



One May 10th, Solar Youth participated in the Great Parks Pursuit kick-off day at Hammonasset State Park, sponsored by the CT Department of Environmental Protection as part of the No Child Left Inside campaign. The youth participated in a variety of activities such as: weather forecasting, reading, orienteering, sunscreen safety, kite making and flying, bubble blowing, bike riding and potato sack racing.

Watch the slideshow below to view pictures from both field trips!

Raptors visit Solar Youth!

On Friday, May 16th, Teresa Kramer of Canton Raptor Care brought three captive raptors to visit Westville Manor. Solar Youth's Citycology, Service Crew, Adventure Team, and Steward Team interns spent the rainy afternoon learning about raptor ecology, biology, and conservation. Check out the pictures!

Youth Summit 2008: Food Justice

Check out the slideshow of our favorite pictures from the Youth Summit and read about it below!



Beginning with a Connecticut farm and branching out to the global community, Solar Youth explored the topic of Food Justice in their annual Youth Summit. For three intense days of Kids Explore!, Kids Do!, Kids Teach!, youth from Citycology and the city-wide Neighborhood Steward Teams gathered to address this important issue that crosses neighborhood and national boundaries. (Please see the following slideshows for pictures from each day!)

The first day, Kids Explore!, youth visited Woodbridge Farm in Salem, CT, to learn more about how local food is grown. Youth explored the farm’s barnyard full of cows, horses, and chickens, as well as discovered a nearby forest full of vernal pools and wild plants. After helping clear stones from an unplowed field, youth learned about how different vegetables are grown and then planted potatoes themselves!

The second day, Kids Do!, youth gathered at Edgewood Park for a fun, creative day where they began making placemats for family and friends to share what they have learned about food justice. Youth visited four different stations to learn about nutrition as well as how food production effects people, the environment, and uses a huge amount of energy. Afterwards, NST interns led the group in a hunger banquet to introduce youth to the issue of global hunger. The day culminated in the youth producing their own food – homemade ice cream in recycled coffee cans!

For the final day, Kids Teach!, youth met at the New Haven Green to experience how food is made from products around the world. With a list of ingredients, youth ran from “country” to “country” to gather their chicken, soybean oil, and other goods they needed to make some of their favorite foods. Afterwards, youth walked to the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale to finish their food justice placemats and present a Food Justice Celebration for local community members. After teaching what they had learned and re-enacting the hunger banquet, the 2008 Youth Summit concluded with group pictures and games on the New Haven Green.

Westville Manor PSA - Butting Into Nature's Business

This Public Service Announcement was developed by the youth of the Westville Manor Public Housing development Neighborhood Steward Team in the spring of 2007. This was their "Teach Project" to share what they learned about the effects of littering cigarette butts. Before this, they did a "Butt Clean-Up" where they collected over 1000 cigarette butts from their yards and streets. See C-SAP video below for footage of the clean-up. Thanks to Kim Barnes and Fran Rzenick for producing it!

Fall Trip Photos

"Turtles is Really Good Friends"

This is our favorite video (from Spring 2006), so we decided to re-post it! Jalana has now been in our programs for 2 years.

Spring 2007 CSAP Video

Here is a montage of the Community Service Action Projects youth in our spring 2006 Neighborhood Steward Teams led. For C-SAP's, youth identify a problem, brainstorm solutions, choose a solution, develop an action plan and take action.

Spring 2007 C-SAP Slideshow