Our Blog
SPIN Girls Newsletters Archive
Starting in February 2021, we’ll be posting our monthly SPIN Girls newsletter to our blog for everyone to catch up on the fun things we’re doing! For now, if you’d like to explore our past newsletters, here’s our current archive:
Magic Mamas: How Parent Partnership is Expanding Learning in Northgate
Thank you, School’s Out Washington (SOWA) for featuring our Northgate program on your blog! We love working with Seattle Parks & Rec to support Northgate students through this difficult time.
Thank you, School’s Out Washington (SOWA) for featuring our Northgate program on your blog! We love working with Seattle Parks & Rec to support Northgate students through this difficult time.
“Rebecca remembers the early days of the COVID crisis and trying to plan next steps amidst so much uncertainty. She says that SPIN Deputy Director Kat Barr, ‘really stepped in while I was just starting to put some pieces together and asked ‘so what are we gonna do for our kids?’’
While SPR was fleshing out their new virtual programming, SPIN started providing 3-D printing classes virtually—and wound up delivering almost double the amount of sessions that were originally designed. ‘The Best Starts for Kids grant is what guaranteed that we could run direct service. We have a unique opportunity here.’ Other possibilities opened up too because of the partnership at Northgate. Weeks before Seattle Public Schools was able to secure laptop donations from Amazon, SPIN was loaning their program equipment to families. ‘These devices help the kids get access to SPIN and to their education, but it also means parents have access to laptops in their homes, too, for things like filling out unemployment applications.’”
For the full article, visit SOWA’s blog here.
Support Women in STEM with SPIN Girls and Warr-King Wines!
RSVP to join us for this fun event via Zoom at 6pm, October 22nd.
Order some Tenacity of your very own! Proceeds benefit SPIN and SPIN Girls.
Resources to Support Black Lives Matter
There are many ways to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Here are a few we want to highlight. We focused on the Seattle-King County area as that is the area we serve. This is by no means a complete list, and we encourage you to continue to look for ways to support the movement. For a master list of national resources, click here (including mental health resources!!) and for a comprehensive Resource Document for This Moment, click here.
DONATE
For direct donations, check out these organizations:
Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County
If you don’t have money, you can still donate by watching monetized YouTube videos. Make sure you turn off ad blockers and don’t skip the ads. Watch here.
PROTEST
Attend a protest and let your voice be heard! Be mindful that we are still in the midst of a global pandemic, so be sure to take the necessary precautions to stay safe.
Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County’s Statewide Silent March and General Strike on Friday, June 12
Attend a vigil for George Floyd every Monday evening in Rainier Valley
Where to livestream the Seattle protests
SIGN A PETITION
There are numerous petitions out there. The #blacklivesmatter Google Doc compiles a long list of them and lots of other useful information.
REGISTER TO VOTE
With the 2020 presidential election coming up in the midst of a global pandemic, voting may be impacted. Make sure your voice is heard by registering to vote!
Washington State Voter Registration
EDUCATE YOURSELF AND THOSE AROUND YOU
“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.” - Angela Davis
Put in the work to be an anti-racist and a better ally to the movement. Share what you learn with those around you (friends, family, co-workers) and if you have kids, consider the lessons you’re teaching them implicitly and explicitly.
Please don’t ask Black folks to educate you unless they offer. (If that’s not enough for you, here’s one reason why.) Turn to these resources instead:
From a Model Minority - An Introduction to BLM (written by one of our SPIN Girls mentors)
Black Lives Matter Seattle-King County’s statement on recent protests and the actions of Seattle's mayor.
Anti-Racism Resources for White People
How to Talk About Race, Justice, and Equality with Your Children
Queen Anne Book Company’s Adult Reading List for Justice and Change
SUPPORT BLACK-LED & BLACK-OWNED BUSINESSES
If you’re already ordering takeout or buying some new things, check out these Black-led and Black-owned businesses, restaurants, and organizations.
Black-Owned Restaurants in Seattle
Black-Owned Businesses & Restaurants in Seattle You Can Support Right Now
Support These Local Black-Owned Businesses & Non-Profits and Help Make Change
Stay safe, take care of yourselves and each other, and continue to fight for what’s right. We’ll continue to update this post as needed. #BlackLivesMatter
SPIN Girls COVID-19 Response
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have shifted our programming to keep our students, mentors, and staff safe and to support our students and their families as best we can. Here’s some of the work we’ve done:
Events
We have moved our monthly events to a virtual setting. Once a month, we have a Field Day or a Lab Day. Normally, we would visit a site or meet in person to create projects, but due to social distancing requirements, we can no longer do that. In order to adjust, our Program Manager (PM) planned an entirely new virtual Field Day for April 18th. She reached out to families to ask students what they wanted to learn about, and they voted for a pandemic curriculum. One parent expressed that she would only feel comfortable with a pandemic curriculum if it was uplifting and positive rather than more anxiety-inducing content. As a result, our PM wrote a Field Day agenda that included the following:
A virtual escape room to break the ice after two months apart;
Check-in questions for mentors and mentees to ask each other to see how everyone is doing mentally, emotionally, academically, and physically;
A chance to find uplifting and heartwarming stories that have come out of the coronavirus situation to remind everyone of positive sides to the situation;
A non-fear mongering lesson on pandemics;
An infectious disease simulation for students to take on roles in identifying an infectious disease outbreak;
Numerous opportunities to take a screen break and to participate in a mindfulness activity;
And a look at the positive things that have come out of this pandemic (impact on pollution, communities coming together, etc.) to end the lesson on a positive note.
In addition to this virtual Field Day, we created project kits to send to the students so that they can still complete their Capstone Project. When our PM checked in with our families, she asked if they would want a physical project to work on to offer a break from online learning. The answer was a resounding yes. This kit included the supplies needed for the project but also had a personalized note and a treat to have during our virtual Lab Day on May 16th to mimic the snacks and food we would provide them at an in person Lab Day. Our Capstone Presentation on June 20th will also be held virtually and students will receive special kits from us for that event as well. As we do not know how long social distancing measures will be in place, we are planning multiple versions of our July Retreat - online, socially distanced, and in-person.
Family Support
To support our families in this switch to online learning, we offered to loan them technology supplies. We provided a family with a laptop, mouse, and a wifi hotspot so that they could participate in online learning. Our PM also sends out resources to our families to help them navigate online learning and to help them get the supplies they need to get through the pandemic.
Additionally, we have broadened the permissible use of SPIN Girls Scholarship funds to include basic needs such as groceries, rent, and utilities in order to support families struggling to make ends meet as a result of the outbreak.
Program & Curriculum Improvement:
During this shift, we have continued our work with Crux Consulting to create surveys we can use to gauge program efficacy and make program adjustments. Though this situation makes testing and administering our surveys more difficult, we still plan on continuing with our regular timeline to pilot the surveys with our Epic Cohort this spring (virtually), making adjustments based on their feedback to be able to start administering the surveys in full at the beginning of our next program year.
Whether our July Retreat happens in person or virtually, we still plan on asking the girls to provide input on this year’s program and curriculum to improve and to plan next year’s program. If we do not get to see the girls in person, we may get fewer responses, which could impact our ability to make the most effective curriculum changes.
Remaining Uncertainties
We do not yet know how this situation will impact our mentor and student recruitment for next year. As of right now, this disruption hinders our plans to host a recruitment event at the beginning of June, but we are trying to make an online version that we can still advertise through PeachJar and other online sources. However, it is hard to say exactly what we are offering because we do not know if a second wave of the virus will hit in the fall, leading us to social distancing once again. Our PM will do her best to account for this possibility in advertising the program, but we cannot predict how this will impact volunteers’ desire to mentor or students’ desire to participate.