Despite being located directly on Lake Erie, Cleveland – like many other American cities – is faced with many structural and systemic issues that result in unequal access to drinking water. Drink Local Drink Tap is a non-profit dedicated to increasing community access to clean fresh water in the Cleveland area. When their Education Director Benjamin Jurek was contacted by educators at Cleveland School of the Arts to present a real challenge to their class, he was thrilled at the opportunity to both raise awareness amongst the students about the issues affecting their community while also offering them a chance to help tackle them.
The students from Cleveland School of the Arts were given a tour of a water treatment facility to get a glimpse of what it takes to deliver clean tap water to residents before being given their challenge: create a plan to significantly increase community trust in tap water. Students engaged in deep research – including conducting surveys in their community – to craft solutions that were backed by data. Watch below to hear from Benjamin about the results of the students work and the mindset shift he saw as he witnessed them become active, creative participants in their learning and in their community.
“The value I see in engaging students in these kinds of partnerships, I would say is the growth mindset. Seeing a young person learn about a problem, build a team, address solutions, then run with it and start to go about making a difference… It filled me with so much hope.”
– Benjamin Jurak, Education Program Manager Drink Local Drink Tap
