Lesson Plan 5

Title: A Community Working Together

Grade: 8

Time Requirement: 80 minutes

Objectives

• Students will be able to investigate the meaning behind a community.
• Students will be able to discuss and analyze the impact that Robert F. Kennedy had on the Bedford-Stuyvesant community.
• Students will be able to communicate Robert F. Kennedy's vision of a stronger community through individual involvement.
• Students will be able to take a greater interest and role in their communities.

New York State Learning Standards

• Social Studies Standard 1: History of the United States and New York state KI 3, PI 2
• Social Studies Standard 3: Geography KI 1, PI 4
• Social Studies Standard 4: Economics KI 2, PI 1
• Social Studies Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship and Government KI 2, PI 5; KI 3, PI 4
• English Language Arts Standard 1: Information and Understanding Grade 8 Reading, PI 12; Grade 8 Writing, PI 8; Grade 8 Speaking PI 2, 4
• English Language Arts Standard 2: Literary Response and Expression Grade 8 Speaking, PI 1
• English Language Arts Standard 4: Social Interaction Grade 8 Reading, PI 1

SOCIAL STUDIES CORE CURRICULUM

Grade 8: United States and New York state History

Unit 11, Section II D. Old and new problems must be addressed (p. 88)

SKILLS

• Interpersonal and group relation skills – cooperating to accomplish goals
• Thinking skills – drawing inferences and making conclusions; decision making
• Research and writing skills – getting information; organizing information; analyzing information; synthesizing information; supporting a position

CONCEPTS

• Change
• Choice
• Civic values
• Citizenship
• Human rights
• Needs and wants
• Places and regions

Technology Requirement

Laptop computers, if possible

Background

In 1966, New York Sen. Robert F. Kennedy went on a tour of Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood in Brooklyn. Around the time of his visit, the community had gone through a demographic shift, from 75 percent white in 1940 to 85 percent African-American and Latino in 1960. Properties were being abandoned and fewer local residents owned what was left. The quality of public services - garbage collection, health care, schools and others - had been reduced drastically. Sen. Kennedy saw evidence of all this on his tour and he was determined to act. He turned to the community itself, which - in spite of its troubles - had a rich network of community groups organized under the umbrella of the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council. Kennedy resolved to use the neighborhood to test a new federally supported model for developing communities. In 1967, along with fellow New York Sen. Jacob Javits, Kennedy introduced legislation that offered financial support to the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (BSRC), which became the nation's first community development corporation.

• http://www.livingcities.org/2006%20Files/2006_cities_new_york_success_bed-sty.htm

"He sought to remedy the problems of poverty through legislation to encourage private industry to locate in poverty-stricken areas, thus creating jobs for the unemployed, and stressed the importance of work over welfare."

• www.rfkmemorial.org/lifevision/biography/

"He believed that the government should not breed dependency, but provide a safety net while emphasizing self-reliance. His public-private partnership in Bedford-Stuyvesant stands as a model for his goal of creating jobs to help the poor become working taxpayers."

• www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/robert-f-kennedys-contest_b_105454.html?view=screen

Relevance to Current Issues

The Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Project is still in existence today. Congress acts to assist communities in their states to create job opportunities and cultural activities.

Student Activities

Anticipatory Set

Have a chart ready (overhead, smart board or flip chart) with the following columns: (students should be handed a copy of the chart from this link)

DOWNLOAD: Document 5a: Community Chart (PDF)

• What we think a community is.
• How an individual can make a difference in the community.
• How Robert F. Kennedy helped a community change.

Engage the class in a discussion on what is a community.

Write the student responses in the first two columns. The third column will be filled in after the lesson has been completed.

Activity 1

In groups of four, students will view the Web site www.restorationplaza.org which is dedicated to the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Project. After examining the Web site, the students will complete the following assignment. Download and print the chart for the students to fill in.

DOWNLOAD: Document 5b: Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Project Chart (PDF)

• Under each category, list the activities that the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Project has initiated for that category.

On the back of the paper, answer this question:

• How have the resources that the Bedford-Stuyvesant Project given to the community helped residents improve their lives?

Activity 2

Read the two quotes and answer the guiding questions.

Robert F. Kennedy quote on poverty from http://www.bobby-kennedy.com/:

• "We must begin to bring the talents, skills and resources of the private enterprise system into the struggle to end poverty and deprivation in urban and rural America. Government must join in a partnership with industry, permitting private enterprise to help solve the problems of housing and unemployment in our deprived areas."

Quote about Robert F. Kennedy's vision for financing black and Hispanic businesses.

• "Long before others, he (Robert F. Kennedy) saw that small businesses, not Fortune 500 companies, were the major job creators. He insisted on involving banks and financial institutions when most low-income families viewed them as usurers, and he sought creative ways to rewrite federal tools. Robert F. Kennedy wanted to multiply minority-owned businesses. In 1966, New York City banks combined did not lend even $1 million to black and Hispanic businesses. The senator was passionate about economic justice in inner cities and rural areas. He felt strongly that the promises and benefits of our economic system should be open to all Americans. Against the advice of the cautious, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a poverty-stricken section of Brooklyn, N.Y., he joined hands with Republican Sen. Jacob Javits and launched a comprehensive revitalisation (sic) project."

Kerry Kennedy and Sam Beard: http://ipsnews.net/columns.asp?idnews=42740

Robert F. Kennedy turned to the Ford Foundation for assistance in funding the Project. The Ford Foundation had turned attention to fighting urban decay. Robert F. Kennedy saw in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area the opportunity to bring private and public institutions together to improve an inner-city community. The success of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Project so impressed the Ford Foundation that it expanded its model to other cities in the United States. Download and print the case study on the Ford Foundation and Bedford-Stuyvesant Project

• http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/dfrp/cases/descriptive/bedford-stuyvesant.pdf

- How did Robert F. Kennedy see government helping to solve the problem in deprived areas?

- Define usurer. Why do you think Robert F. Kennedy wanted banks and financial institutions to help finance the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Project?

Culminating Activity

• Consider your community. If you were in charge of improving one part of your community, such as a park, homeless shelter, your school, or your athletic field, what would you do to carry out your mission? Who would you ask to help you? Where would you get the funding to complete the improvement?
• Create a plan that includes all the necessary people, equipment, funding and other items you believe would be needed to carry out the improvement.

Extension

Robert F. Kennedy believed that an individual had the power to change the world. Changing the world starts in one's own community. Below you will find a list of links of different organizations.

Students can access these links and use the Web sites as a motivational tool to get them involved in their community.

• Volunteering Across America: www.volunteer.gov/gov/
• Boy Scouts: http://www.scouting.org/  
• Girl Scouts: http://www.girlscouts.org/
• Salvation Army: http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/

The best way to change the world is to start in your own community. Volunteer locally!

Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (R) with Walter Wetzel, president of the National Congress of American Indians, and unidentified woman. (Photo by Francis Miller//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)