Coming Soon: Gentrification on Chicago’s South Side

Hello, and welcome to my first action project for the unit of "Text" in my Humanities core class, "Journalism". In this class, we learned about how to identify false news and information by reviewing criteria for a credible source. We had a Field Experience guest named Julie Wernau, a journalist from the Wall Street Journal, who discussed her career, published stories, and further talked about her journey throughout being a journalist. We watched "Spotlight", a movie based on the story of how a reporting team in 2002 exposed the Catholic Church's cover-up of child sex abuse by its priests. The movie was very impactful as far as terminology for editors and journalists. For this action project, we were instructed to report on an event and write an article using the aspects of journalism. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Coming Soon: Gentrification on Chicago’s South Side  

Over the last decade in Chicago, gentrification has become more common than ever. It has become evident that Englewood, located on Chicago's South Side, is being impacted by gentrification. Gentrification has forced the integration of Hispanic/Latino and African Americans due to people moving from Pilsen and Little Village. Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, improving housing, and attracting new businesses, typically displacing current inhabitants in the process. Gentrification has its positives and negatives such as creating more jobs, making homes for people to live in, and bringing more funding to a community. 

The Barack Obama Presidential Library and Center will be constructed on Chicago's South Side in Jackson Park. Neighborhoods that will be heavily impacted by future gentrification of the Obama Library and are within a 5-mile radius of the library’s site include Woodlawn, Englewood, and Greater Grand Crossing. People who are most impacted by gentrification are middle and lower-class residents of color. “Fear of gentrification — and the racial disparities that often come with it — has existed for decades in Woodlawn and other South Side Chicago neighborhoods slow to recover from the recession.” 

 “I think the library will bring major spikes of investment into Chicago’s South Side communities and properties, positive talk about the South Side to quiet down common stigmas of the area, and the amount of city and community involvement that the area needs,” said Leo. Many people fear losing the place they call home but others think believe that the library will be a hotspot for Chicago’s tourists and will bring opportunities with its arrival.  “I hope it brings jobs and uplifts the communities. I fear it is going to end up pushing people out of that area which will be a shame,” concluded Sharon. Gentrification from the future Obama Presidential Library on Chicago’s South Side will detrimentally impact the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods with displacement and further financial disparities. Some people still might think that gentrifying an area does more harm than good so I interviewed a few people to get different perspectives on the matter. “At first, it seems cool. The neighborhood gets cleaned up. More amenities come and the area becomes safer, but I think it ultimately does harm because the people who are living there get displaced.  People whose families have lived in a certain place for two or three generations can no longer afford to live there,” responded SH. 

Buying back property in your community is a great solution to the forthcoming gentrification. “Do believe there are people who are buying blocks at a time—at a time. You can’t complain about gentrification if you don’t own anything,” said Antoine Butler, a landlord. “The property value is rising. They’re not gonna tell you that. They’re not gonna let you know that Englewood is probably the hottest land in the city of Chicago right now.” 

By providing a detailed background of gentrification, its effects, and how to prepare for or fight against it; people impacted by it can fully process what will be their neighborhood's future and how it will impact their lives. Overall, gentrification should be a positive thing as far as new developments in underdeveloped areas towards a better future for the generations to come. Sadly, gentrification usually is the complete opposite but its negative impacts can be either intentional or unintentional. "It is morally wrong to get investment in a community that's long-overdue for investment and then to displace the very people who have been dealing with disinvestment," - activist Jeannette Taylor said. Gentrification needs to be noticed with the seriousness of the city-wide spread modern-day colonization of black and brown striving underresourced communities.

Works Cited:

“About Us.” Barack Obama Presidential Library, 20 Oct. 2016, www.obamalibrary.gov/about-us.‌

Belanger, Christian. “Englewood Residents Organize to Take Back Their Block.” Curbed Chicago, Curbed Chicago, 23 July 2018,  chicago.curbed.com/2018/7/23/17476622/englewood-development-group-buy-property. 

TAREEN, SOPHIA. “Obama Library Brings Elation but Also Fear of Displacement.” ABC News, ABC News, 4 Aug. 2019, abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/obama-library-brings-elation-fear-displacement-64765335. 

"Dear Father, From Travis"

Hello, and welcome to my blog. This is my final action project for my Humanities course called Drama and for my Sophomore year. In this class, we broke off into parts and read Loraine Hansberry's, A Raisin in the Sun. In this class, we studied housing discrimination, segregation, and racism in Chicago which still continues today in our country today. We had virtual Field Experience guests Regina Holloway and Joel Hamernick who spoke to us about restrictive covenants in Chicago and how specific laws were put in place to keep black families out of white neighborhoods. Prior to this class, I wrote up a research paper containing the factors and behaviors that went into housing discrimination such as restrictive covenants and the pricing on a property skyrocketing for a person due to their ethnic and cultural background. For this Action Project, we were guided to write a letter to Walter Younger to convince him on whether he should or should not sell the house to Mr. Linder. I decided to write a letter, the man of the household, from the view of another character in the play. This letter is directed to Walter who has the final decision on whether their family will move to an all-white neighborhood as the only blacks there or remain in poverty in the "Black Belt" in Chicago. I was challenged to write this letter because of the social circumstances at the time within my city and neighborhood. 

My Garden Plan

In the first unit of my freshman STEAM course class Food, we have been learning about ecosystems, interactions/symbiosis within ecosystems, the nitrogen cycle, the symbiosis between plants, nutrients plants need, and philosophy about agriculture. We have been studying the ecology of planting, different farming methods and how these methods affect the food we eat. We went on Field Experiences to Patchwork Farms where we learned about how they managed their farm and to Big Delicious Planet where we learned about how their catering company as a business takes actions towards being as green, clean, and sustainable as possible. For this AP, my class was instructed to design a garden, find a location, find ways to make the soil compatible, find materials or containers that we could grow plants in, and pick 10 vegetables to grow. I enjoyed everything that has led up to this action project. Here is a slideshow of all the vegetables I plan to plant in my garden and a sketch of my garden.

 

 Below are the containers I will grow my vegetables in.

4 Plastic Bins (10 plants per pin) Volume = 91356.85 cm.³

( L x W x H): 26.5 x 16.5 x 12.75 in.).

5 five-gallon buckets (5 plants per bucket) Volume = 29233.52 cm.

(11.91 Top "x 10.33" Bottom x 14.5 in." H)

5 plastic rectangular containers (3 plants per half bottle) Volume= 1577.25 cm.³

(L x W x H): 8 3/4" x 5.5" x 2 in.")

Below are my calculations for what product or supplement and quantities per 100 square feet. I need for each outdoor space.

Original Soil Quality:

Nitrogen in soil: 15 out of 40 (low amount of nitrogen)

Phosphorus in soil: 23 out of 30 (high amount of phosphorus)

Potassium in soil: 61 out of 300 (very low amount of potassium)

These are the products and need to add in order to amend the soil.

(F101 Blood Meal)     F2100 Soft Rock Phosphate           F2260 Sulfate of Potash

5 lbs per 100 ft²                   2 lbs per 100ft²                              0.5 lbs per 100ft²

5.5 lbs per 150 ft²               2.5 lbs per 150ft²                            0.85 lbs per 150ft²

10 lbs per 200 ft²                   4 lbs per 200ft²                            1 lbs per 200ft²

Ron Finley is a guerrilla gardener ad he is making a difference and impact in his community of South Central, Los Angeles. He started free and voluntary community gardening and plans to make this practice into future business and project. In a TED Talk by Ron Finley, he said, “Food is the problem and food is the solution.” To me, this means unhealthy food and food practices are the problems and healthy food and food practices are the solutions to that problem. For my garden, I planned to have it in my complex yard and in a yard at a local community college. I chose both of these locations because they are local and accessible places for a garden in my neighborhood. The dimensions of my complex yard are 10ft. long by 15ft. wide and the dimensions of the community college yard are 10ft. long by 20ft. wide. In all, the area of my complex yard is 150 square feet and the area of the community college yard is 200 square feet. I will plant cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, asparagus, corn, peppers, cabbage, beans, and lettuce in my garden. I chose cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes. I will plant these vegetables because these are some of my favorite vegetables and they also are compatible companion plants to some plants out of the ten I chose. Beans, cucumbers, and cabbage are companion plants to each other and onions, carrots, tomatoes, and lettuce are also companion plants to each other. Carrots take the nitrogen from the soil and allow the tomatoes to take in the amount of nitrogen needed in order to grow. My garden will represent the symbiotic relationships of mutualism and commensalism because my garden will be public to my surrounding community and I will have a garden where organisms will have interactions of mutualism and commensalism. For example, if a cottontail rabbit happens to eat a carrot from the garden and then produce organic waste, my garden will benefit from the organic waste and the rabbit will also benefit. I will use the principles of natural farming no chemical fertilizer, no weeding by tillage or herbicides because I feel and learned that any synthetic chemicals and addends to plants and crops will hurt the soil and land over time.

In conclusion to this project, I learned about the history of agriculture and ecosystems, different methods within maintaining and sustaining agriculture, and the reasoning and importance behind the different ways and methods of agriculture. I also learned about why it is important to have healthy fertile soil compared to dirt for plants, why the symbiosis between plants matter, and why food needs to be sustainable for all people. If I could do this project again, I would plan a garden for a space about 500 square feet just so I can add components and factors to it.

Reducing Our Carbon Footprints

Hello, my name is N.L. In my Freshman STEAM course class Fuel, we have gotten into the third unit. During this unit, we have been reviewing and learning about solving and plotting inequalities, the carbon cycle, the laws of conservation of energy and thermodynamics, and balancing chemical equations. Throughout this class, I have learned a lot about different sources and types of fuel and energy. We went on a Field Experience where we walked around the Goose Island neighborhood of Chicago and looked for different forms of pollution. Pollution is when any substance is in the wrong place or concentration in the environment. The most interesting and true thing I learned is that "invisible" pollution like carbon emissions is worse than "visible" pollution like litter on the ground. For this Action Project, we were supposed to write an action plan for reducing "our" carbon footprints. Hope you enjoy!

The Ojibwe Nation and Dream Catchers

Hello, my name is N.L. I am a freshman at GCE Lab School. This is my final action project for my Humanities course called "Who Am I ?" Now in this class for our second unit of Doubt and Dream, we have been learning about the study of dreams. Freud was a cultural philosopher who had a lot to say about dreams and he came up with psychoanalysis, which is a theory to treat mental disorders. In this unit, we studied surrealism, which is an “artistic method that implies symbolic meanings”. We studied many surrealist artists and interpreted their many artworks. We partnered up with a classmate and shared our dreams with each other, and interpreted the meanings of them. For this Action Project, we were supposed to create a dreamcatcher that represents a dream we had, and the positive and negative elements we want and don’t want in our future dreams. I enjoyed making both of my dreamcatchers and learning about the meaning behind them.

N.L. "First Dream Catcher" March 23, 2019

Dream catchers originated from the Native American Ojibwe Tribe. Most dream catchers are made by grandparents and then given to their grandchildren. They believe that everything you make for the first time, you shouldn't keep but give it to someone. Since this was my first time making a dream catcher, I decided to make my first one for my two baby cousins and a second one for me. The purpose of a dream catcher is to protect someone sleeping from negative dreams. It allows positive dreams to pass through the web and reach the sleeping individual. The dream catcher works by trapping and filtering out the negative dreams and letting positive dreams go by. The positive dreams slip through the web and flow down through the hanging strings to the person sleeping. Negative dreams get caught in the web and burn out when the sun shines on them. Each part of the dream catcher symbolizes something. The hoop of your dream catcher symbolizes strength and unity. The center of the dream catcher symbolizes your “Creator,” "Great Mystery," and or your bliss. Someone’s bliss is what makes them happy and spreads joy to them.

The center of my dreamcatcher symbolizes the “Creator” because it represents the balance of good and evil in our world. In my dreamcatcher, my superego and id and the good and evil forces of my mind are fighting against each other. The “Great Mystery” in my life is the bliss of having relationships with people I love, the feeling of love, blessings I receive from God every day, sports and music. I chose to put a yin-yang symbol in the center of my dreamcatcher to symbolize good and bad in my life and to symbolize the balance of good and evil. The three different colored feathers hanging from my dreamcatcher represents the Pan-African flag which symbolizes the goal of encouraging and strengthening bonds of unity between all people of African descent. The center of my baby cousins’ dreamcatcher is a heart which symbolizes the love I and my family has for them. The two different beads and different colored thread represents both of my baby cousins and their differences. For my dreamcatcher, I want positive dreams of my late (past) family members and of good memories from my life in the past, wishes of success, protection over me and my family, and the elements of peace, love, and bliss, and “good” to pass through my dreamcatcher. I symbolized these positive elements in my dreamcatcher by having a red thread in my dreamcatcher’s web. For my baby cousins’ dreamcatcher, I want the positive dreams of family, wishes of good health, and the elements of peace, love, and bliss to pass through their dreamcatcher. I symbolized these positive elements by making the ring of the dreamcatcher red. I used the color red to represent strength, passion, and love.

N.L. "Second Dream Catcher" March 23, 2019

I want my dreamcatcher to filter out the negativity of negative minded people, negative or evil energy from demons in my unconscious/subconscious, fears of dying, and killing. I symbolized these negative elements by putting one side of my web white and the other black and also putting a gun on my web. I want my baby cousins’ dreamcatcher to filter out negative memories of trauma and conflicts in their lives, negative or evil energy from their unconscious and subconscious minds, and the fears of the things they’re scared of. I symbolized these negative elements by putting on the ring of the dream catcher.

We went on a Field Experience to the American Indian Center where we talked to Fawn Pochel and I learned about some of the different Native American tribes and nations and their some of their beliefs that differ between tribes and nations. I was very interested in learning as much as I could not only for a future grade but to expand my knowledge. She also gave us some tips on making dreamcatchers. Another Field Experience we went on was to the Art Institute of Chicago where we looked at artworks from surrealist, abstract, and cubist artists. The Ojibwe thought that dreams were very important. A psychologist named Freud came with the theory of psychoanalysis therapy, which is to release repressed emotions and experiences or to make the unconscious in your mind conscious. The unconscious mind is your thoughts while you are unconscious. These two things factored in with artists in the modern time of Surrealism. Surrealist artists were obsessed with Freud's ideas because they believed leaving an open door to your unconscious mind opens up a gateway or path to creativity and new ideas. In class, we did dream sharing and interpretations. I interpreted my partner's dream as a horror-filled dimension where murdering a masked killer was the only way to get out of the loop. If I were in their dream, I would’ve felt stuck inside of a place similar to hell. If I kill the masked murderer I will wake up from the dream. These were the two "if" statements I interpreted from my partner's dream. I recently had a very realistic dream recently and it has been on my mind for a while. Everything was so perfect. My family was one huge happy family at my grandma’s house, but then all of a sudden that vision started to fade and I woke up. I feel some factors in this dream could be the rationalization of the dream and repression of negative things that I might have been on my mind in this dream.

In conclusion to the class "Who Am I ?," I learned that truth, memory, doubt, and dream make a person. Experiences and beliefs can be determined as truths and doubts as well as memories and dreams. Learning about different people's history, knowledge, and wisdom has impacted me to appreciate different cultures and educate myself about different cultures. I have really enjoyed the many discussions, field experiences, and experiences in general in this class.

Space Travelers Board Game

Hello I am a freshman at GCE Lab School. In my STEAM course Game Changers we've been learning about and playing many different games. Mostly card, board, and dexterity games. We also learned about the elements of a game and how you would play it. We also got to meet and talk with game designers.My teammates and I made a game for our class and the game we’ve created is called Space Travelers.

Space Travelers is a game where players are placed on earth, choose what planet they want to go to. Players have to go around the game board and pick up resources from different planets such as Jupiter, Venus, Mars and Neptune. In order to win the game, each player that feels like they have enough resources in order to return to Earth with, they stay. The player with the most resources who comes back to Earth wins the game.The audience that might utilize our game are groups and organizations who are interested in space. A lesson that our game can be used to teach is making strategic decisions.

I feel that our game is the outcome of hard work and teamwork. Thinking about game as an idea then making the game was a pretty good start into the creation of the game. Creating the game started as an idea, got into visualizing the game by drawing sketches of the game, then from there we started physically putting our game together. The first time we play-tested our game, we noticed many things that we can improve, change and take from our game. The play-testing went good and we got some descriptive feedback. During the play test, some people enjoyed playing our game and some got uninterested in our game. The revision process of our game was very critical towards inventing our game. We made a lot of changes to our game. We changed the size and shape of the board, discarded of our cards we made and added small blocks into the game, changed the icons of the spaces and we added more planets to the game, and we also changed some of the rules to the game. Overall the making of this game took a lot of work and effort and I think our group succeeded in making a game people will enjoy. 
Space Travelers is the first official game that I have ever made. Including myself, I worked in a group of 3. I feel that I personally put as much work into the whole process of inventing a game as my teammates. Some of my personal contributions to this game are being open minded to new ideas for the game, making multiple game boards by cutting paper and cardboard, making game pieces such as meeples, getting materials from the “Waste Shed” for the game, making cards that were for the original version, finding time to work on improvements for the game, and just overall participating in group work and activities. I am most proud of all the hard work and teamwork that resorted to our game being a representation of something that started off as an idea and then became reality. I feel that I have the most room to improve on the game board of the game and some of the factors to the game. I feel that if I have resources that I need, I can improve the quality of our game board. Some of the factors I would add are things like low gravity airs on the board and more player interaction features like the taking resources factor.

Rokhaya Diallo: Peace Activist

For this elective term, I am taking the class Global Peace. In this class we have been learning about  Gandhian principles such as Sarvodaya (the uplift of all), Swadeshi (local economy), Swaraj (self-rule), and Satyagraha (the power of truth). We studied the different types of violence. They are structural, cultural, and direct violence. Structural violence is injustice and exploitation that is built into a social system. Cultural violence is the prevailing attitudes and beliefs. Direct violence is a combination and the outcome of both structural and cultural violence, referred to as one -to-one. In class we used a conflict iceberg and analysis tree as ways to look at conflicts differently. The conflict iceberg allowed us to view conflicts from  The conflict analysis tree allowed to view conflict from 3 levels, the conflict itself, the cause of it and the effect of it. Sharp's Methods are a list of more than 190 methods on non-violence actions. People all everywhere use these methods but might not even know it. For this action project, we had to choose an activist to learn about.

The activist I chose to study for my research paper is Rokhaya Diallo, who started the"Les Indivisibles". In conclusion, I learned a lot about how the United States' and France's society have similarities in racism, similarities in perception of minorities, and I learned about how problems aren't just in one place but global. The most important thing I learned from Rokhaya is that anyone can make a difference and be the change. This action project was not only to learn about someone new but to also reflect on who fits the characteristics of the Gandhian principles and a peace activist.

Gwyndon. Rokhaya Diallo, March 17, .2018

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

This is my last action project for my Humanities course and unit on the SDG's, (Sustainable Development Goals). We have been learning about many different sustainable development goals. Some were Zero Hunger, Gender Equality, No Poverty, and Climate Action. For a Field Experience, I got to contact people and organizations and interview them on my chosen SDG.  Throughout the unit, I choose SDG 11 for this final action project of this unit. At the end of the first term, we chose one of the seventeen goals that we wanted to focus on and did an essay on it. I have chosen to do an essay once again for my action project.

Most people in the world can see that racial inequality and segregation in cities and communities is unsustainable. According to the Sustainable Development Goals,“95 percent of the urban expansion in the next decades will take place in developing the world. Sustainability is the ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level. Sustainable development is the economic development that is conducted without the reduction of natural resources. A sustainable community is one that is economical, environmentally, and socially healthy and strong. Sustainability and sustainable development are important in cities and communities because without out order and sustainability in cities and communities, there would be chaos in the world.

Sustainable Development Goal 11 is to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, according to the United Nations. Some targets of this goal are to “ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums and to provide access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety, notably by expanding public transport, with special attention to the needs of those in vulnerable situations, women, children, persons with disabilities and older persons”, according to the S.D.Gs. According to the United Nations, “Between 2000 and 2014, the proportion of the global urban population living in slums dropped from 28.4 percent to 22.8 percent.” “However, the actual number of people living in slums increased from 807 million to 883 million.” This data represents how sustainability and sustainable development is important in our cities and communities. This issue affects people who live in lower income areas.

Individuals and countries who have taken action on sustainability and sustainable development are people who are working towards this goal. Countries around the world expand their geographic boundaries to accommodate new inhabitants. From 2000 to 2015, in all regions of the world, the expansion of urban land outpaced the growth of urban populations. One organization that is based in Chicago and has taken action on the issue of unsustainable development by influencing sustainable development. This organization is called the Chicago Network for Technology. This organization uses cargo-oriented development (COD) which helps railroads, freight yards, and industrial sites become greener, more efficient, and better neighbors. They influence environmental and resource sustainability.

Individuals have been starting to take action on this issue of having unsustainable cities and communities. Ways individuals can take action for sustainability in their cities and communities are to reduce natural resource usage, do positive things in your community that make a positive impact like starting community gardens and starting beneficial programs. Something people can do to help achieve this sustainable development goal of having sustainable in cities and communities is to fight for resources and fight for change in their city and community.

Sustainable cities’ and communities’ success depends on the people in it who stand up for healthy community institutions, services, and businesses. They help in achieving this goal.

In conclusion, SDG 11 is important and it also relates to Chicago.  Without sustainable cities and communities, there would be chaos all over the world and our environment wouldn’t very healthy or strong. During this action project, I learned more about the importance of sustainability and sustainable development. SDG 11 affects me and the area I live in because I live in an area where sustainability is on the rise in my community. Sustainability in resources, environment, and economics.

Works Cited

“Goal 11 .:. Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform.” United Nations, United Nations, sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg11.

“Definition of Sustainable Community.” Institute for Sustainable Communities, sustain.org/impact/definition-sustainable-community/.

“SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities.” United Nations, United Nations, in.one.un.org/page/sustainable-development-goals/sdg-11/.

"J. Smith, personal communication, May 17, 2008"

“CNT Delivers Game-Changing Research, Tools, and Solutions to Create Sustainable + Equitable Communities.” Center for Neighborhood Technology, www.cnt.org/.

Gender Pay Gap: United States and Canada

This action project is about "Equality". In my Humanities Class, we've been discussing and studying Equality. We talked about specific areas on equality like gender equalities and inequalities. We went on a field experience to "The Center on Halsted" and we took a walk throughout the neighborhood surrounding GCE. We discussed how we see equality and inequality in our lives. Areas where we commonly see gender inequalities are from the media and throughout social media. One thing that stood out to me in gender inequality was equal pay.  Professor Hewit from Oakton Community College and Scout Bratt from the Chicago's Women's Health Center also came to GCE to talk to us about Anthropology and Sex and Gender. These things we studied, learned, and experienced is important because we didn't just learn about these subjects for a grade, we wanted to dig deeper into these topics by experiencing the topics and discover how and why they exist and what's being done to fix some of the problems we learned about.

U.S. Census Burau (20)  77 Cents for Every Dollar

Haven't you heard ? The gender pay gap is a big problem. The gender pay gap is a man to woman pay ratio. It represents how many cents a woman makes to every man’s dollar and also represents how women get paid less than men. The United States gender pay gap is very similar to Canada’s gender pay gap. It is a problem in today's world because it shows how women are treated and looked upon differently compared to men just because of their gender and it also shows how equality has not been achieved yet.

The gender wage gap in the United States affects women across the nation. Equal Pay Day was originated by the National Committee on Pay Equity in 1996. It was a public awareness event to represent the gap between men's and women's pay wages. The United States implemented the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which requires that men and women are given equal pay for equal work in the same job but women still earn 18.2% less than the median wage of American men. According to "History.com", the Equal Rights Amendment was to provide for the legal equality of the sexes and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex.  It also aims to end the legal distinctions between men and women in terms of a divorce, property, employment, and other matters. Women earned only 77 cents for every dollar that men earned in 2012, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.  "The gender wage gap has hovered at about 77 cents on the dollar since 2007" according to the Huffington Post.

The gender wage gap in Canada has a big effect on women in Canada. Women in Canada still earn 18.2% less than the median wage of men and 26% less for a full time full year-round work that men do, despite the Canadian Employment Standards Act. The act prohibits wage discrimination on the basis of sex and employment status in Canada. Canadian women still make 74 cents to every dollar that a man earns. According to "canadianwomen.org " women, workers in Canada earned an average of 69 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2016. According to catalyst.org "women in Canada earned 83.1% of what men earn on average, based on the weekly wages of full-time workers in 2017."Canada's wage gap has overall increased and decreased over the years.

The United States and Canada both have similarities and differences when it comes to the gender pay gap. Some similarities are that they both have a gender pay gap in their countries that affect many people and both countries have implemented Acts that focus on equality. Certain states and provinces in the US and Canada have legislation which prohibits discrimination in employment. The United States now has a gender pay gap of 18.2% out of the 100% of pay men receive. Women in the United States earn 77 cents for every 1 dollar made by me while, women in Canada now earn 87 cents for every 1 dollar made by men. The United States gender pay gap is worse than Canada's gender pay gap.

In conclusion, The gender pay gap affects countries all over the world and has been a problem for a very long time. I can see how this one subject ties in with equality and the different views on equality. I learned how the US and Canada both have similar problems and both have their own ways of fixing those problems. There are things being done to fix to help to close the gender pay gap but there have not been any noticeable or shown improvements towards ending the gender pay gap.

Works Cited

“Gender Wage Gap | Canadian Women's Foundation | Gender Equality Advocates.” Canadia.
Women's Foundation, www.canadianwomen.org/the-facts/the-wage-gap/.

“Home.” ERA: Home, Alice Paul Institute, www.equalrightsamendment.org/.

Sanders, Katie. “PolitiFact Sheet: The Gender Pay Gap.” PolitiFact, 15 July 2017,
www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/jul/15/politifact-sheet-gender-pay-gap/.

Racco, Marilisa. “Gender Equality in Canada: Where Do We Stand Today?” Global News,
8 July 2017, globalnews.ca/news/3574060/gender-equality-in-canada-where-do-we-stand-today/.

Venessa. “Women in the Workforce: Canada.” Catalyst, 10 Oct. 2018,
www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-workforce-canada.

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

This action project is about SDG 2, Zero Hunger. In my Humanities Class, we've been talking about the difference between SDGs and MDGs. We have mainly been focusing on SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), and SDG 4 (Quality Education). We've had Adam Olson from Oxfam America come in and talk to us about the organization and their goals on helping other countries. He also talked about what his organization does in the US. A field experience I went on was to the Lincoln Park Community Shelter where I help cook "Homemade Chili" with my classmates. This action project talks about World Hunger.

World Conference Center (WCC). (2017) Global Festival of Ideas for Sustainable Development  https://www.flickr.com/photos/globalfestideas/33263432976 

Some might argue that access to food shouldn't be a human right because it's a human need. Human needs should become human rights when health and lives are at risk. Hunger is a worldwide problem. People should have the right to have access to food. Therefore nobody starves and or suffers. It shouldn't be a problem in a world full of resources and people. Many people die from hunger, and kids don't fully develop due to malnutrition. Almost all the hungry people live in lower-middle-income countries. There are 11 million people undernourished in developed countries. The human need for food should become a human right when lives are at risk from starvation and access to food becomes a problem. Hunger and malnutrition make the body weak and vulnerable to diseases and infections because the body doesn’t have the fuel to build muscle and fight off infections. This is deadly in children and many children die in hunger prone areas for this reason. Pregnant and malnourished mothers deliver underweight babies, who struggle for survival. Children often have stunted growth as a result of malnutrition. There are 815 million hungry people in the world—one in every nine people...according to (The United Nations). An estimated sixty percent of the worlds hungry are women or girls. Stunted growth, also known as stunting and nutritional stunting, is a reduced growth rate in human development. “It is a primary manifestation of malnutrition (or more precisely undernutrition) and recurrent infections”, such as diarrhea and helminthiasis, in early childhood and even before birth, due to malnutrition during fetal development brought on by a malnourished mother. The definition of stunting according to the is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection and poor psychosocial stimulation. Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard difference below the WHO Child Growth Standards median. Children under 5 affected by stunting (low height-for-age): 150.8 million (22.2%). Children under 5 affected by wasting (low weight-for-height): 50.5 million (7.5%).This data matters because it talks about how many children are affected with low height or weight for their age due to malnutrition and stunting.

We all need food to eat every day so our bodies stay nourished and in good health. Since hunger is a worldwide problem, "we" on this planet need to help come to a solution to this problem. In Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, food falls under physiological needs. A physiological need is something that is necessary for you in order to survive. Some benefits of having access to food and healthy food are that healthy food will provide optimal nutrition for infants that will benefit them throughout their lives, healthy eating can reduce the risk of chronic illness and disease, and having access to healthy food reduces food insecurity.

We as people can come together to help put an end to world hunger. Organizations like Oxfam America focus on poverty. Oxfam America hosts hunger banquets which open up peoples’ eyes to what other people around the world experience every day when they are hungry. Organizations and groups accept volunteers willing to help pack food to send to countries that suffer from hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Another organization is called “Feed My Starving Children.” This organization allows people to come in and volunteer packing “Manna Packs.” MannaPack Rice: Consists of vitamin-packed flavoring, dried vegetables, soy protein, and rice.

In conclusion, I believe that access to food should be a human right because we need access to food in order to survive and live healthy lives. There is straight up proof that kids without food and who are malnourished don’t grow as much as kids with access to food. Food for all is the goal but we are still working towards this goal. I learned a lot from this action project. I’m grateful to be living in a place where I have to worry about whether or not I will be able to have food for the next day. That concludes this action project.

Works Cited

“Impact of Hunger.” Hunger in America, Feeding America,
www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger/.

“Zero Hunger.” Zero Hunger, World Food Programme, www1.wfp.org/zero-hunger.

“History of Feed My Starving Children.” Feed My Starving Children, FMSC,
www.fmsc.org/about-us/history-of-feed-my-starving-children.

“Stunting in a Nutshell.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 19 Nov. 2015,
www.who.int/nutrition/healthygrowthproj_stunted_videos/en/.