Students from 10 local schools and community centers will visit the University of Notre Dame from 3 to 5 p.m. May 3 (Thursday) in the Stepan Center for a celebration of the Robinson Community Learning Center (RCLC) Take Ten violence prevention initiative.
Some 350 students will attend the Take Ten Festival, which will include visits by Eric Crittendon of the South Bend Police Department, Superintendent Carole Schmidt of the South Bend Community School Corp., and a representative from the South Bend mayor’s office. The event will include games and activities, refreshments, distribution of T-shirts and performances by Notre Dame’s First Class Steppers.
Take Ten encourages young people to “Talk it out, walk it out, and wait it out” as a means to resolve conflicts peacefully. The program reaches some 8,000 children at 13 local schools, several public and private school districts beyond South Bend, the Center for the Homeless in South Bend, all Boys & Girls Club sites, and community centers through the assistance of more than 130 volunteers from Notre Dame and four other local colleges.
In addition to the festival, Take Ten is celebrating the release of its new website and cyberbullying initiative in partnership with Memorial Hospital, Mindstorm Digital and the South Bend School Corp. The newest comic book “Take Ten Crew vs. Cyberbully” was revealed at the 2012 Community Plunge on cyberbullying in February. For more details, check out the new site or visit www.taketen.nd.edu for more info and contact details.
The RCLC was started in 2001 as a community-driven education center sponsored by Notre Dame in collaboration with neighborhood residents and partners. The center offers a number of programs and activities sponsored by local agencies and organizations, including after-school tutoring, a youth Shakespeare company, a youth entrepreneurship program, computer instruction, GED and English-as-a-new-language classes. For the first time, the Robinson Community Learning Center has AmeriCorps members serving in all programs as full-time, half-time and minimum-time commitments. More than 500 residents and volunteers participate each week in on-site RCLC programming, and as many as 300 Notre Dame students, faculty and staff volunteer with center programs.