OUR PAST PROJECTS (2019-2021)
Food Insecurity - 2019-2021
Kern is the second largest agricultural producing county in the United States, yet Bakersfield has the highest rate of food hardship in the nation. In February 2020, TYM4Change partnered with the Kern Youth Making Change AmeriCorps program (through the Community Action Partnership of Kern) to examine the impact of food insecurity on Kern County residents. Then, in March 2020, COVID-19 hit and food insecurity became a national concern as businesses closed and grocery shelves emptied. TYM4Change organized a county-wide survey of 654 individuals waiting in food distribution lines. We asked questions about food hardship, COVID, employment, and mental health. Between fall 2020 and spring 2021, we filmed nearly 30 interviews with local people working to address the problem of hunger—some of them people who had experienced food insecurity themselves. Our documentary, Invisible: The Unseen Faces of Hunger in Kern,” launched in June 2021. In it, we raise awareness about food insecurity in Kern, the factors that contribute to it, what local organizations are doing to address it, and how we all can help.
Building Healthy Communities - 2019
In 2019, The California Endowment funded TYM4Change to develop a mini-documentary on the role of youth empowerment in the Building Healthy Communities (BHC) initiative in South Kern County. BHC was a ten-year project designed to address health inequities in sites throughout California, one of which was in the Arvin-Lamont region of Kern. The BHC Youth Empowerment documentary was our first attempt at documentary filmmaking—with a lot of assistance from the video production team at the Kern County Superintendent of Schools Office! This project hooked us, by teaching us how powerful documentary filmmaking can be in raising awareness and promoting positive change. Check out the film!
Little House Renovation Project - 2020
Vineland School “Little House” Renovations
A “little house” sits on the Vineland School campus, uninhibited for several years. It’s an old building, and when we first toured it, the rooms were being used for storage. District Superintendent Cindy Castro has a vision, though, and we agree to help her realize it. The “little house” is going to eventually become a parent center with emergency food and clothing distribution; a computer bank for parents to use to create resumes, apply for jobs, and take online ESL classes; and a one-stop shop where parents can meet with social workers, public health nurses, and other county service providers to help them get the resources they need to better their economic situation. So far, this has been a partnership between the district, the Community Action Partnership of Kern (CAPK), AmeriCorps, and TYM4Change–but even though we’ve been able to repair the leaking roof, address the water damage, clean and paint the walls, and pull up the carpets to make room for final flooring, we will need lots of help from the community to finish the project. We have mold and plumbing problems that need fixing, windows that need to be replaced, and flooring to be laid. Again, we need YOUR help to make all this happen!
Sunset School Renovation Project - 2020
Sunset School Grounds Renovations – March 2020
When your huge and sprawling playground has no shade, no seating, a lot of gopher holes, and virtually no areas set up to play sports outside of a basketball court that needs to be resurfaced—well, it’s hard to take pride in your school. When we took on our first “ball drive” for Sunset School in the Vineland School District in fall 2019, we knew we wanted to support the renovation of the school grounds and give the students in this district all the advantages they deserve. Our first partner in this project was DeWalt Construction. The company donated $34,000 in aerial mapping of the campus, using a drone. Our local Starbucks stores worked with us in our 2019 ball drive. We received a grant from Starbucks to continue our work on the project, and the local stores are assisting us to fundraise. Design Concepts of Colorado will be providing the master plan for the renovation at a reduced fee, using innovative approaches to build an outdoor learning environment. We know this project will take several years, but when we are finished, we plan for Sunset School to have state-of-the-art facilities that includes trees, shaded seating, a soccer field, a baseball diamond, upgraded basket and volleyball courts, a community garden, and much more.
We are looking for additional business and corporate sponsors to help us. Interested? Contact us at execdirector@tym4change.org.
Sunset Mural Project
Summer 2019
Sunset Mural Project – Summer 2019
We started our partnership with the Vineland School District by painting a unity tree mural in front of the school. Four artists from our Workforce Development team created the design and painted the outline on a seatrain located at the front of Sunset School. Then, on a hot day in late June, over 20 of us arrived to help over 60 kids from the summer school program to complete the picture. We “bagged” the kids to protect their clothes, and got some great shots of the team working with these highly excited students. Check out the photos!
Starbucks Ball Drive
Fall 2019
Sunset Middle School in the Vineland School District serves nearly 300 students in 5th through 8th grade–some of the most economically disadvantaged kids in Kern County. The school has few resources. When we heard from staff that students lacked athletic equipment to play with during recess and lunch, we took action. In November 2019, in partnership with 10 local Starbucks stores, TYM4Change conducted a ball drive and collected over 100 basketballs, volleyballs, and footballs for the school.
Workforce Development
2018-2019
In spring 2019, TYM4Change became a Workforce Development site and trained a diverse and talented group of 30 transition-age youth to become participatory action researchers. They conducted interviews and focus groups and surveyed more than a thousand people across Kern County as part of a substance use needs assessment project. We hope to become a workforce development site in future years!
Health Screenings for
South Kern - 2020-2021
TYM4Change is partnering with Dignity Health to offer health screenings to parents of students in the Vineland School District and other residents of the south Kern community of Weedpatch. We contact parents, schedule their appointments, text reminders, and help set-up and tear down the exam site. CAPK is partnering with us to provide food boxes during these events. In February and March 2021, over 40 adults participated in the screening. We plan to continue screenings on a monthly basis through June. In the fall we hope to offer flu vaccination clinics.
Online After-School Enrichment to Keep Kids Engaged
2020-2021
Between September and December 2020, TYM4Change implemented a series of two-week, online after-school enrichment modules for 5th through 8th grade students at Sunset Middle School in Weedpatch. Modules included recyclable art, self-care, ecology and environment (including virtual tours of the California Living Museum), harvest holidays around the world, and even a U.S. Constitution Boot Camp to help prepare 8th graders to take the exam required for graduation. The modules were designed to connect students to school and each other during a time when COVID-19 was limiting social interaction and engagement. Students earned incentives for their participation. We served nearly 150 students over four months. We resumed the program in spring 2021.
Tobacco Use Prevention Education - 2019-Present
Between October 2019 and February 2020, we partnered with students from The Bridges Academy in Bakersfield to develop an anti-vaping campaign targeted toward peers and younger kids. The result, Capes Up, Vapes Down, has become a staple of our after-school enrichment program, and led to the development of Radionovelas, a series of old-time radio shows complete with sound effects, featuring melodramas about fiendish tobacco villains and the young heroes who save the kids they try to addict! We are now working with Kern school districts to raise awareness among students about tobacco disparities and to find innovative ways to use Capes Up, Vapes Down as part of restorative justice programs for students caught vaping.