Jeffrey Kinnear's interview with Kevin Moody(intern of Our next Generation)

Q: What is the daily life for a kid in this community?
A: Right now there are a lot of younger, elementary kids, that are attending school everyday. Many of these kids are in after school programs such as Our Next Generation or another like the YMCA program. Kids that are older, high school or college age, spend a lot of time in school or out on the streets. Some of these kids do not live the best lifestyles and are getting into trouble on the streets. During the summer many of these younger kids are just being kids and playing sports such as football and basketball for fun.

Q: What are some unique attributes of this community?
A: There a lot of groups that are very similar to Our Next Generation. A lot of programs to help kids with their homework and to keep the kids off the streets and out of trouble. There are also a lot of inner city sports teams for the kids. Kids in this area love to play sports and there are teams for these kids to play.

Q: What are some things that you believe the city needs?
A: There needs to be more programs for older kids to keep them out of trouble. Kids need to be apart of something that will help them with decision in their future. A lot of these kids go from school to the streets and there should be places for them to go besides the streets. Also more education programs for kids that are not doing well in school. Some kids are having trouble and there are only a few organizations that have programs to help them. Some groups that will get them to do different activities that they may have never done. Such as a group that takes older kids on camping trips and get them out and doing things they just can not do in the city. Lastly, I would like to see more out of city coaches would come to these areas and help get some of these athletes on teams. There are a lot of athletes that would love to play basketball or football but there are not quite enough teams for everyone in the city.

Q: What are some resources that the kids have in this community?
A: There is this great organization of Our Next Generation that is out for the kids and to help them. There is also a big YMCA that is for families and kids to go after school or just for fun. There are also a great amount of churches in the area. The church is a good place for kids to go and get advice on many different topics and many kids can develop a lot of good morals in a place like the church.





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There are many things that a person can learn about a community through a "photo essay" project such as this. There are many things that I have learned from this about the community that Our Next Generation works with. I have learned that there are a lot of non-profit organizations that are working to keep the kids working on their education and keeping them off the streets. From my interview with Kenny, there are a lot of kids that get older and start to "hustle" on the streets instead of bettering their education. So organizations like this are working to prevent that and keeps kids' brains working and helping them better their future and hopefully better the community. I have also learned with my interview that there are people that are trying to get kids involved in other activities that you can't do in the city, such as camping as Kenny said.




I have also realized that church is a big party of this community. There are churches every few blocks and the community does not discriminate against different religions. There are many different types of churches such as Catholic and Lutheran churches. Having this many churches in this area means that there are a lot of religious backgrounds that go with the people of the community. I believe this is a good thing for the kids of the community because it can give some basic guidlines that may help them grow up and become a better person when they are older.



The way that I made my photo "essay" was by taking pictures of the community that had things to do with Our Next Generation and other things that are in the community. The way I took my pictures was by picking out things that I thought were important to the kids of the community. I thought things like the churches and schools were important places. Our Next Generation is a organization that works with keeping kids in school and off of the streets. The places that I have pictured in my photo essay are places that also have things to do with keeping kids off of the street.