Step-By-Step Guide

MISSION & PUBLIC "MESSAGE"
Create a collaborative, art-science, public awareness project designed to engage the minds, hearts, and enthusiasm of youth about a critical environmental issue, and empower them to use their "spheres of influence" to inform and inspire members of their extended family, friends, and teachers to take action on behalf of our oceans and ocean life. To accomplish this, our project poignantly puts a face [children's] on the critical ill health of our planet’s oceans by drawing attention to the human consequences of our rapidly diminishing fish supplies.

For details about our Project Objectives visit:
http://www.asci.org/artikel916.html

Once the mission and public message was decided, the various components below were created to bring the project's objectives to life!


LOCATING PARTNERS
This is an extremely important step. The process of educating yourself about the ocean issue that is touching your heart, is very exciting and integral to the success of the project.  Today, with the Internet, it can totally be done via online research.  Who are the experts on that marine issue?  What reports have been published recently? What types of  public awarness or action projects have already been done? Which are the ocean conservation organizations whose mission/message most match yours? If your project will be local, then you can meet with people in-person, which is always best. However, don't contact your potential project partners until you have a good sense of what you want to do, the need for it, and it's uniqueness... allowing for an openness that welcomes input from those you want to partner with.  Pointing them to these web-pages will help to capture their imagination about the benefits of the partnership to enhancing their mission's goals... but you should know enough about their mission to be able to suggest the benefits as well.

The next-step in creating partnerships is to draft a "Letter of Agreement." This clearly itemizes the benefits and responsibilities of each partner, and provides a timeline for delivery of specific actions [responsibilities] by each partner. When the draft is agreed upon, your group sends it for approval and signature [or digital signature]. Do NOT do this step over the phone, it needs to be "formalized" in writing, and both parties mark their calendars accordingly. These letters will be different for each partner that is providing completely different services to your project. [see each component of the project below] 

Mostly, your "Project Partners" will provide their services for "free" because you are not charging them to be involved in a highly-visible project that enhances their educational or ocean conservation mission,,, and also they will receive public recognition. 

Click here for a sample "Letter of Agreement" with our performance school partner. Un-anticipated changes to the project production timeline should be shared with and accepted by your partner in writing [via "email" rather than phone].

For services that must be paid for in cash [choreographer, audio-video equipment, etc], you also should create a Letter of Agreement and a Payment Schedule. Our New York choreographer and assistant were paid 25% up-front, 50% upon completion of rehearsals at school with our student performers, and the 25% balance on the day of the event.

SPONSORSHIP
Create a one-page project description and mention the amount of your request.  Email an introduction to yourself and project to your potential sponsor and attach the project description. Also print-out and leave the project description one-pager with them during your personal meetings. This "one-pager" should include:

~ if you want, you can copy/paste our Fishes Feed Us logo at the top

~ a small photo [your local fishing boats or or ocean problem issue] 

~ you can use one of our photos, however...Please post a text credit for logo and/or images to: "Art & Science Collaborations/Fishes Feed Us project"]

~ a paragraph description about the project and why it is important locally

~ link to "Fishes Feed Us" model via http://www.asci.org/artikel884.html

~ itemized short list of cash expenses & total [see below for ours]  

Potential sponsors/funders can be researched at the Foundation Center online: http://foundationcenter.org

DURING "PITCH" MEETINGS:  Being yourself and talking in an informed and passionate way about our ocean crisis, and why you feel there is a critical local need for increasing public awareness [and action!]... is key to your success with this part of the production puzzle. Approaching local businesses that economically benefit from a healthy ocean and local coastal waters [tourism, recreation, restaurants, banks, fishing industry, etc.] will probably cover your or your group's expenses.  Remember, mention to them that their local "Fishes Feed Us" project will bring them local publicity [they will be viewed as an "ocean steward"], and will also be posted and promoted [via text, photos, and links to partners and sponsors] on ASCI's "spin-offs" web-portal that will be documenting global youth and civic group efforts on behalf of our oceans!

EDUCATIONAL INFORMATION
Challenging/Inspiring Youth Involvement
Project Director, Cynthia Pannucci went into the classrooms of the project's NYC educational partners [elementary, middle and high-school] to inspire the involvement of the students. To provide them with the scientific facts about our collapsing ocean fisheries around the world, she presented a compelling multimedia CD filmed and produced by Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Futures Society. It was about ocean reefs and the consequences of their destruction for planet Earth and its peoples. She also mentioned that many kids living in coastal villages in the Philippines and Malaysia can't go to school because they must fish all-day so that their families have a necessary source a protein, because most local fishes have been over-fished by large, international, commercial fishing vessels. This really made an impression on the NYC students.  Made them want to help and tell others about this unfair situation!

Educational resource links about "the state of our oceans" and actions that individuals can take to help, were shared with participating youth via partner coordinators in NYC and Malaysia and the Philippines. The Philippines coordinator took her high school students on a field trip to a coastal village and they interviewed fisher children. Now there are many educational materials for youth, teachers and the general public posted on ocean conservation websites, so we can all be well-informed about the complex issues of this pressing, global environmental issue. [see "resources" in navigation links below].

Art teacher/science teacher "team-teaching" is encouraged, however we did not have enough time to initiate our project at the beginning of the school year. Therefore, links to educational resources were provided to teachers, students, and parents and they were responsible for deeper investigating on their own.

KIDS FISHES BLOG
We decided that the best way to provide a global platform for the words of youth on the causes and consequences of our collapsing ocean fisheries was to create a dialogue via a kids-to-kids online blog. Through an email referral by one of the world's most renown fish experts, Dr. Rainer Froese, we found an important early partner. OneOcean.org and the FISH Project in the Philippines, offered to collaborate on the production and hosting of our KidsFishesBlog under the coordination of Ms. Ciony Sia. The blog was responsible for providing us with the 10 spoken monologues for our youth performance [and much more archived dialogue text is available for public use]. [see "kids blog" navigation link below]

PERFORMANCE AS SOCIAL ACTION
Thirty, 9-year old and 10-year old students from a NYC public elementary school, PS124 in Chinatown, worked with a NYC choreographer and two dance assistants to create our “Fishes Feed Us” performance. The performance medium required the children to "become" the fishes with their movements [and spoken monologues], thus it became a powerful vehicle for the youth to physically integrate and publicly share their new knowledge about our ocean fish crisis.