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| Last updated on October 8, 2008 |
Mission: The Community Bicycle Center exists to empower people through bicycles and bicycling.
Vision: As a result of the Community Bicycle Center's work, people of all ages and backgrounds will learn the personal skills necessary to safely maintain and ride bicycles, have access to safe bicycles, and improve their well being through bicycling experiences.
Description:
Executive Summary
Community Bicycle Center
The Community Bicycle Center ("CBC") bicycle safety education programs have and will provide youth life skills and asset building experiences. Hands-on bicycle maintenance and riding skills education programs are our tools we use to help youth develop thriving attitudes and behaviors. CBC aligns itself with the bicycle safety goals of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine and the League American Cyclists by promoting, providing, supporting, and coordinating bicycle safety education programs. The internal and external child and adolescent development asset research conducted by the Search Institute provides the foundation of our program designs. The staff, volunteers, and center are guided by our vision to lower the barriers for people to participate in personal growth experiences through bicycle safety education programs. The Community Bicycle Center will be woven into the fabric of Biddeford, Maine and surrounding communities.
Based on concerns revealed by examining research data, CBC will initially target middle school youth who are interested in the fun and freedom that bikes can offer. Children 14 and under are most at risk bicycle-related injuries and fatalities and have low helmet use. Participants will be invited from the Biddeford School system, Biddeford Parks and Recreation department, social service organizations, local out-of-school programs, low-income housing developments, and community-based clubs and organizations. Initial programming will include the Earn-a-Bike mentoring program established in 2001, after school drop-in bicycle repair and maintenance based on The Bicycle Workshop model, and structured cycling experiences such as our intergenerational Trek Across Maine Charity Cycling fundraising team, established in 2000.
CBC programs will focus on four maintenance and repair activity components: 1) ABC Quick Check bike inspection model, 2) pure Earn-a-Bike programming, 3) service learning activities, and 4) teen and adult mentor training. On the bicycle riding side of the safety education equation, CBC will facilitate and/or support: 1) safe riding instruction, 2) the BCM after-school bike club model, 3) charity fundraising cycling teams, and 4) bicycle to school trains. In addition, CBC will encourage the formation of community and school-based clubs such as Trips for Kids and Sprockids programs. All programs will be grounded in various components of the developmental asset model.
The CBC Director, Andy Greif, has affiliated the center with the Biddeford Parks and Recreation Department, which has provided an educational bike shop space and the associated occupancy expenses. Andy Greif has 17 years of experience with youth asset development as well as being the co-founder and director of an Earn-a-Bike mentoring program and a youth/adult charity cycling team. Andy and a host of program volunteers are skilled in experiential program design, program sustainability, grant writing, volunteer development, risk management, intergenerational programming, and youth asset development.
The Community Bicycle Center exists to empower people through bicycles and bicycling. Our indicators of success will include increasing the number of developmental assets children experience, reducing bicycle-related injuries, increasing bicycle helmet usage, increasing the number of bicycle transportation trips, and increasing access to bicycles. This will result from improving attitudes, beliefs, and skills specific to bicycle safety by making programs inviting, accessible, and hands-on. As a result of CBC's work, people of all ages and backgrounds will learn the personal skills necessary to safely maintain and ride bicycles, have access to safe bicycles, and improve their well being through bicycling experiences.
History:
Background Information
Community Bicycle Center
The Earn-a-Bike program was started on January 23, 2001 as a volunteer effort to improve the thriving behaviors of young people living in northern York County, Maine. The program invited kids eight to eighteen years of age to work alongside adults recycling discarded bicycles for others in need of two-wheeled transportation followed by recycling a bicycle for themselves. The Earn-a-Bike program wasn't about the bikes. It was about involving caring adults in the lives of kids who needed mentoring, self-awareness, and social skills. The philosophical core of the program was grounded in developmental asset building and mentoring best practices. Most of the kids involved where referred by local social workers due to the program co-founder's (Andy Greif) connection to the educational and social services community. Refer to the attached newspaper articles, which tell stories about how the program impacts the lives of young people.
On February 25, 2002 the Earn-a-Bike program moved and opened in a new home, the Community Services Branch of the Northern York County Family YMCA in downtown Biddeford, Maine. During the years the program operated as a YMCA program it expanded to become a Community Bicycle Center. Additional asset building programs developed through the center's educational bike maintenance shop including: drop-in bicycle maintenance, international outreach through sending bicycles to families in Jamaica and Armenia, bicycle fabrication classes, vocational experiences, indoor group cycling and roller classes, and an intergenerational charity fundraising cycling team. All programs involved kids and adults working together in learning, fitness, and self-actualization. Unfortunately, the Community Services Branch closed its doors in June of 2005 due to financial challenges. The Biddeford Parks and Recreation Department adopted the Community Bicycle Center by providing a space and utilities for the educational bike shop. The shop was created in September 2005 and is now ready to offer programs to meet the needs of the local kids and community.
Contact person: Andy Greif, Director, (phone), (email)
Address:
Web Site: http://www.communitybike.net
Directions:
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Take the ME-111 exit- EXIT 32- toward BIDDEFORD from the Maine Turnpike. Turn LEFT onto ALFRED ST / ME-111. At Five Points intersectioncross ELM ST / US-1 / BLUE STAR MEMORIAL HWY and proceed onto West Street. Turn LEFT onto. . . (more) |
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