Wildlife Habitat Workshop at Capital Area Food Bank

  We received the below message from Susan T, a neighborhood resident and employee of the Capital Area Food Bank, regarding a workshop taking place this weekend.  Hopefully neighborhood residents can attend.  It seems like a great chance to not only learn about their new Urban Destionation Garden but also what CAFB does.  Hope people can attend!
 
  "Please join the Capital Area Food Bank for a Wildlife Habitat Workshop where we will be breaking ground at our new Urban Demonstration Garden. This garden fills almost an acre at the north end of the new facility and will serve as an ideal space for the food growing education that we plan to conduct with our partners and with the surrounding community.
  In partnership with the District Department of the Environment and Audubon Maryland/DC, this workshop will teach participants how to create space for wildlife habitats in their yards and communities. As a DC resident, you will receive a habitat kit that includes a book, native plant guide, birdhouse kit and live plants to begin creating wildlife habitat at your home.
  As a neighbor of the food bank, we are excited to welcome you into our garden. We greatly look forward to beautifying the space together with you and are hopeful that this will be just the first of many opportunities for us to grow together in this outdoor educational space. The workshop will consist of a slideshow presentation and a wildlife planting that will complement the food bank’s food growing space.

Workshop Details:

 Location: 4900 Puerto Rico Ave NE on the North side of the food bank

Date & Time: Saturday, September 22nd from 1 pm to 4 pm

Dress: Come ready to plant and get your hands dirty

Please RSVP by completing this form or by reaching out to Abbie Steiner by phone at 202-644-9854 or by email at asteiner@capitalareafoodbank.org. 
To learn more about the work of the food bank, please visit www.capitalareafoodbank.org."

Want to Get Away From It All...Try Being a Hermit in NE DC

  Architect Magazine has run an interesting piece on a hermitage (yes for hermits) to be built on the gorounds of Mount St. Sepulchre (aka the Franciscian Monestary in Brookland), designed by CUA's Architecture Students.  The full article can be found here.
"The process began in 2010. Fourteen students were charged with designing a 350-square-foot cabin to house not just monks, but anybody who wanted to withdraw from this world of perpetual connectedness. (Eventually, the Fransciscans want to build as many as four modern hermitages on their grounds to rent out, for one week at a time.) As a preliminary exercise, instructor Bill Jelen asked the students to turn off their various electronic implements for an hour and just sit by themselves. 'It’s amazing how many people couldn’t do that,' Jelen says."

It's seems like a very interesting idea, and one that many of us could potentially benifit from. Especially considering the hyperconnected, stress magnified, perpetual motion world we live in inside the beltway.  More information on the hermitage can be found below:
http://www.myfranciscan.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=158&Itemid=62
http://publicaffairs.cua.edu/releases/2012/franciscan-hermitage.cfm

DC Works! One Stop Shop Career Center Moving Into CCDC Backus

 With all the announced projects coming to the District (and specifically Ward 5), the apparent lack of qualified DC residents to fill the forecoming job openings is clear.  While the expansion of UDC-CCDC throughout the city provides one means to creating an in demand workforce, the DC Department of Employment Services (DoES) provides another avenue to create a more competent and valued workforce.  DoES runs a series of Career Centers that provide various levels and types of training and assistance to the Districts current workforce.  However, news of a DC Works! One Stop Career Center moving into the newly renovated CCDC Backus Campus is causing quite a stir in the surrounding communities. 
   The move, initially announced in a Feb, 2011 brief given by the DoES, will close the current One Stop Center on Franklin St, NE  and relocate it to the CCDC Backus Campus this month.    The DC Works! One Stop Career Centers provide job seekers with a number of employment opportunities. Each center provides career counseling, career planning, resume assistance, direct job placement, classroom and on-the-job training, access to America's Job Bank (both online and via telephone), information about local and national labor markets, unemployment compensation and much more.  Daily workshops are held to better train the DC workforce to compete in todays local and national job markets.  The move would allow DoES to leverage CCDC's ability to provide  training in Health care, Construction trades, Hospitality and Office and Administrative technology in their training and placement efforts.

  At first glance this move appears to be a natural fit, and would benefit not only CCDC and DoES, but the community as a whole.  Many local residents however, seem to see it in a differnet light.  Many feel this agreement was made with little neighborhood involvement, and almost no notification.  An open house was held at CCDC with Councilmember Thomas Wednesday (20 April 2011) afternoon, but many people only received notification of the meeting late that very afternoon.  Some residents equate the One Stop Center as  an employment "DMV," which will bring many people into the neighborhood and disturbe the quiet peace many enjoy.  Some fear that the increase in people traffic to the area will bring in an undesired element.  All concerns for increased traffic and crime aside, the lack of preceived communitcation between city leaders and the community seems to be the real issue.  Many community members do not fully understand the size and scope of this proposed move, or even what DC Works! programs provide the community.  The impact on the neighborhood will be very clear soon, as the new one Stop Center will be opening it's doors in meer weeks.

How do you Feel about the relocation of the DC Works! One Stop Career Center to CCDC?