Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative (SMEC) Executive Director Catherine Cooper and Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth (MPY) Executive Director Margie Daniels are proud to announce that SMEC ALC 1 student Emme McKenna is being celebrated for her winning entry in the middle school division of MPY’s annual statewide poster project.
On Friday, Feb. 14, MPY Executive Director Daniels presented Emme, 10, of Dartmouth, with a certificate of award for her winning poster design, which was titled, “Blooming in our Community.” Emme was also given an Amazon gift card, meant to help her purchase art supplies. The award presentation, followed by group photos, cake and refreshments, was held at Albert F. Ford Middle School in Achushnet, where the SMEC program is housed.
Emme’s winning poster features a drawing of three flowers, with five flower petals floating in the air above them, bearing words like “kindness,” “helping,” and “caring.”
This year, participating students were challenged to create a poster featuring the theme, “CommUNITY — Together We Can Achieve Greatness!”
A total of 145 entries were submitted to this year’s project from 22 schools across the state that belong to MPY. Eight students from Emme’s class created and submitted a poster design.
“Thank you so much to everyone for participating,” said MPY Executive Director Margie Daniels. “The judges absolutely love the message of ‘Blooming in our Community.’ And aside from the beautiful flowers that you drew, we loved the words that you used: ‘caring,’ ‘helping,’ ‘kindness,’ and ‘respecting.’”
MPY has run the statewide poster project since 2009 as a way to engage students on important topics and to make their voices heard. The project is open to all high school, middle school and elementary students from MPY member districts. Project winners are chosen by a panel of students, educators, law enforcement representatives and MPY staff.
This marks the second year in a row that a student from this ALC 1 SMEC program was named a winner in MPY’s statewide art project. SMEC eighth grader Alan Campos-Gonzalez was named winner of the middle school division for the MPY 2023-24 Poster Project.
“You’re becoming a dynasty!” said Executive Director Daniels.
ALC 1 stands for Alternative Learning Classroom I, which is SMEC’s middle school program, serving students in grades 5 through 8 with social/emotional and behavioral disabilities. A total of eight students from the class participated in the project.
Acushnet Police comfort dog Sunny also attended the statewide poster contest celebration. The large standard poodle was brought there by its trainer, School Resource Officer Derek Cathcart.
Jessie McKenna, Emme’s mother, who also attended the celebration, credited SMEC and MPY with giving her daughter valuable opportunities like this to learn, grow and create.
“I’m just so proud of my daughter, and I’m just so grateful for programs like this and for her to have an outlet for her creativity,” McKenna said.
School Adjustment Counselor William Sylvia said the art project provided an important chance for students to reflect on the community values, to think about what makes them important and to talk about what that looks like.
“We’re really excited about all of the hard work that everyone did on this year’s poster project, related to community and what we value about community,” Mr. Sylvia said. “And our hard work paid off because every one of these can be considered winners.”
As part of the project, before they got down to sketching, drawing and painting, students in two social skills groups with Mr. Sylvia discussed the topic of community heroes. And they brainstormed ways to foster unity in their communities.
“We actually visualized what being part of a community is about,” Mr. Sylvia said. “Part of that process involved talking about our own community heroes. So we heard about how Mr. Beast is a community hero and Kai Cenat, right? We also heard about some of our own family and friends.”
During their brainstorming activities, the ALC 1 students wrote more than 250 ideas onto multicolored index cards, each containing ways people can help their family, friends, strangers, the environment and animals.
After that, they worked during Ms. Nicole Winning’s art class at SMEC to translate those ideas into creative poster designs. Ms. Winning emphasized simplicity when offering instruction on how to accomplish this, encouraging the students to incorporate no more than three major elements into their design and its message.
“When we’re designing a poster, we always talk about how less is more, and how we can’t put everything down on paper,” Ms. Winning said, “but we put just enough that we start to grab the viewers’ attention.”
In addition to the poster project, MPY is running a public service announcement project, encouraging students to film a 30- to 60-second video about the same subject of community, what it means and how to make a positive impact. The deadline for PSA submissions is Friday, April 25, 2025.
“As part of the MPY 2024–25 Poster & Public Service Announcement Project, we are trying to spark important conversations inside of the classroom about the importance of community, and the ways it is strengthened by different forms of unity,” said MPY Executive Director Daniels. “This is a great chance each year for our students to showcase their talents. We are thrilled to present Emme with this award and to recognize the efforts of SMEC students and staff who have participated.”
To learn more about the MPY 2024–25 Poster Project Award, click here.
About the Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth, Inc.
Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that provides training, fosters collaboration, and develops programming to increase the health and safety of students. MPY is committed to bringing cutting-edge information and high-quality trainings to constituents and endeavors to provide solution-oriented, community-based, multi-disciplinary approaches to reducing and ideally eliminating risky behaviors for youth. Massachusetts Partnerships for Youth is governed by a Board of Directors made up of school superintendents, police and fire chiefs, and other community leaders who work closely with MPY staff to deliver this mission.
About SMEC
The Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative is a public education collaborative established in 1975. SMEC is an extension of 10 public school systems, which make up its membership. The present membership includes the Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Fall River, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School, Rochester and Old Rochester Regional public school districts. SMEC accepts students for enrollment in its programs from school systems throughout Southeastern Massachusetts. The Collaborative’s programs and services are locally based and locally directed and are designed to supplement the special education resources of its member districts. SMEC offers a variety of services for students with special needs aged 3-21 as well as adults with developmental disabilities. To learn more about the Southeastern Massachusetts Educational Collaborative, visit their website.
