The 32nd Street Canyon is helping kids put a chasm between them and bad grades. Meanwhile, the kids are helping the canyon continue to provide health and nature to the community.
Sponsored by San Diego State University’s Institute for Public Health, the Student Team Empowerment Program (STEP), which offers academic assistance to middle school children, has joined forces with canyon volunteers to provide environmental education to these challenged inner-city students. STEP meets at least weekly San Diego Youth and Community Services in Golden Hill for guided recreation, tutoring and lessons in decision-making.
The 32nd Street Canyon is a tributary to Chollas Creek between Cedar and C streets on the north and south, and 32nd and 33rd streets on the east and west.
Canyons provides oxygen and cool air for the neighborhood because grassy areas are cooler than cement. Generally, however, poorer neighborhoods are unable to care for their canyons, resulting in trash and a lack of plant growth. Volunteers have replaced 1,000 plants in the 32nd Street canyon to encourage regrowth. This winter, fourth graders from the Einstein Academy public charter school in South Park will join the effort. STEP teenagers will also be there, planting shrubs, grasses and trees.
Recent studies, including California’s Closing the Achievement Gap in 2002, have shown environment-based education improves students’ learning abilities and achievements. The canyon project is just one part of the STEP program, which matches middle-schoolers with SDSU students for mentoring. SDSU is monitoring the progress of STEP participants from 2006-2009 to see how the program benefits these students, who are referred by counselors as requiring academic assistance.
Adults interested in working with the Friends of 32nd Street Canyon, a volunteer group, can e-mail the group’s leader, Tershia d’Elgin, at tershia@aol.com. For more information about getting involved with STEP, call Alejandra Prieto, a case manager at the Youth and Community Services office, at 619-232-8126.
