The DREAM Program, Windsor-Union Square, Quarter 1, 2012-2013

The DREAM Program, Inc. P.O. Box 361 Winooski, VT 05404 (802) 338-8979 tel www.dreamprogram.org

Union Square/Windsor DREAM Quarterly Report September – November 2012 Greetings from DREAM! The Union Square and town of Windsor DREAM program has finished up another wonderful semester of DREAM activities. The children were sad to see the mentors leave for winter break but are looking forward to their return in January. Here is a summary of all the Union Square/Windsor DREAM happenings from the last quarter. Highlights from the quarter include:

• Dartmouth DREAM welcomed a new Student Director in September. Somi Kim, a senior and Hollow Drive mentor, helped coordinate all Local Programs this past term. She will continue in this position throughout the year.

• This semester, DREAM mentors recruited three new youth from Union Square. They all attended the Culminating Event and DREAM is looking forward to pairing them with mentors in January.

• Mentors used a joint recruitment strategy between all three Local Programs and welcomed 27 new mentors to Dartmouth DREAM. New mentors will be split between the Hollow Drive, Northwoods, and Union Square/Windsor programs.

• Dartmouth DREAM teens attended the Teen Futures Retreat accompanied by one mentor. Teens learned about preparing for college, summer opportunities, and applying for jobs, all while bonding with other DREAM teens from around the state.

• Mentors and mentees participated in a Culminating Experience just before Thanksgiving break.

Friday Activities:

• Mentors visited the town of Windsor on the first Friday of the term to talk with families and spend time in their mentees’ neighborhood. Mentor pairs played outside games and had a healthy snack in the community center.

• Mentors and mentees spent four Fridays on the Dartmouth campus participating in one-on-one activities. Programming included playing soccer, baking cookies, exploring campus, and meeting youth from other Local Programs.

• Mentors returned to Windsor to watch youth soccer and football games. Mentoring pairs spent the Friday afternoon cheering for other DREAMers and eating pizza in town.

Special Events for Children and Mentors: • To conclude their successful term together, mentoring pairs visited the Vermont Institute of

Natural Science (VINS) in Quechee, VT. Mentors and youth saw a live raptor show, walked on the hiking trails, and had a picnic together.


• Dartmouth mentors attended DREAMstock, the DREAM office’s annual mentor training event. This year’s event featured sessions on being a co-chair, how to be a mentor, working with teens, open space opportunities, and behavior management.

Capacity Building and Fundraising: • Recruitment for new mentors was very successful this fall. Dartmouth Local Programs will

welcome 27 motivated and excited mentors in January. • On November 19th, DREAM launched its Annual Appeal! Keep a look out for your letter

and please consider donating. So far the Annual Appeal has raised $45k from 73 donors. • Mike Foote re-joined the DREAM office as the Director of Strategy and Growth in early

October and will be spearheading expansion efforts into Philadelphia and Washington D.C.

Mentor Training and Workshops: • Dartmouth mentors from all three Local Programs joined together on the first Friday of the

term to review Mentor Boundaries and Guidelines, DREAM’s Core Values, and our Theory of Change to remind returning mentors of best practices in mentoring. Students elected their peers for program positions during this meeting.

• In November, the Student Director and Program Empowerment VISTA held a training for all new mentors. Mentors filled out paperwork, reviewed Mentor Boundaries, Transportation Guidelines, and Child Abuse & Reporting Procedures, and got to know each other before the term ended.

Camp and Teens:

• Three Dartmouth DREAM teens attended the Teen Futures Retreat accompanied by one Dartmouth mentor. Teens learned about preparing for college, summer opportunities, and applying for jobs, all while bonding with other DREAM teens from around the state. Over 60 mentors and teens gathered to hear about future opportunities available to them. If you would like more information, check out this article from our Alumni Newsletter, the Blue Wagon, http://www.dreamprogram.org/about/announcement/teen-futures-retreat-skyrocketing-future.

• Camp Work Days and Days of Caring occurred in late September, early October, and mid-November. Approximately 100 volunteers assisted staff in various work projects around camp in order to clean up from the summer and prep camp for Winter Adventure Camp in January.

• On September 30th, mentors and alumni joined DREAM Staff for the DREAMstock Camp Work Day.

• On September 30th a group of Elm Street Mentors and Teens hiked a portion of the Long Trail as part of the Catamountain Classic. The event was in honor of mentor Avi Kurganoff, who passed away last year. Other clubs from UVM also volunteered by hiking their own


sections of the Long Trail. This fundraiser helped to set up a scholarship for a DREAM teen to attend an Outward Bound Program. The event planners hope to make this an annual fundraiser to keep the scholarship available to DREAM teens in the future.

• Camp DREAM has partnered with Yestermorrow, a sustainable design school in Waitsfield, VT, to create a sustainable design plan for the new bathroom facilities and kitchen at Camp DREAM.

• Camp DREAM was proud to be awarded a VT Buildings and General Services Recreational Facilities grant to help fund the new septic system that will be installed at camp.

Alumni Involvement:

• Laura Kingston, a former Champlain College DREAM mentor, has joined to Center for Service as a Campus Compact. In this position she is also serving as a Program Partner for DREAM. The South Burlington DREAM Office also welcomed alumni Steph Baer, Nicole Stevenson, and Caitin Patey as Burlington-area Program Partners.

• The South Burlington DREAM office welcome alumni Danielle Jenkins, Andrew Lassiter, Nicole Stevenson, Phil Ortego, Rachel Kauppila, Jenna Rae Genest, Caitlin Patey, Paul Espina, and Megan Kerrigan as volunteers at DREAMstock and the Teen Futures Retreat.

• On October 18th DREAM launched our annual Alumni Appeal. For the appeal, a group of mentors made phone calls to alumni during a phone-a-thon on Dartmouth’s campus. So far 102 Dartmouth alumni have donated. Overall, the Alumni Appeal has raised $33k from 196 donors.

• Two former DREAM mentors, Kate Piniewski and Alison Siegel joined the DREAM Support Staff as Program Empowerment VISTAs serving in the White River Junction and Bennington offices.

• DREAM Staff began the process of engaging with DREAM alumni in Philadelphia, PA and Washington, DC to gauge opportunity for DREAM to have impact in these new cities.

Office:

• DREAM launched its new website in October. Check it out at www.dreamprogram.org • Mike Ewan, former South Burlington DREAM office member, has recently transitioned into

a new role as the Program Director, Advanced Support working with all of the DREAM offices.

• The DREAM office welcomed back former Program Empowerment VISTA Sarah Caliendo as the Program Director, Direct Support for the South Burlington DREAM office.

• DREAM has recently extended its support network through opening a DREAM office in White River Junction at the Northwoods Community.

• DREAM moved one step closer to attaining its goal of opening programs at all the State Colleges in Vermont by launching a program at Johnson State College this past fall.


Thank you for your ongoing support of DREAM. If you would like additional or more detailed information, please contact me by email or by phone. You can always look back at past reports or other programs’ reports by visiting the “Local Program Reports” section of our website. DREAM big, Kate Piniewski Program Empowerment VISTA [email protected] 781.820.4838

Documents

The DREAM Program, Windsor-Union Square, Quarter 1, 2012-2013