The DREAM Program, Madison Park, April, 2012

The DREAM Program, Inc. 41 Dearborn St. Roxbury, MA 02119 (617) 699-8408 www.dreamprogram.org

May 1st, 2012

The Madison Park Village DREAM Update April 2012 The Madison Park Village DREAM Program wrapped up a great year this month as the mentors headed into finals for the Spring Semester.

DREAM Programming:  4/6: No official DREAM due to Easter weekend and Passover. Mentors were encouraged to program with their mentees independently if they were around.  4/13: The mentors and youth enjoyed the last DREAM Friday of the semester and planned out what they wanted to do while at Kimball’s Farm the following day.  4/14: Culminating Experience-trip to Kimball’s Farm. See below for details Culminating Experience: For their culminating experience this semester the group rented a bus and headed out to Westford, MA for an afternoon of fun at Kimball’s Farm, a family fun center. Each youth was given a bracelet that enabled them to choose five different activities including bumper boats, two different mini golf courses, a driving range, batting cages, and an arcade, and everyone received ice cream.

Programming beyond Fridays: Mentors continue to go above and beyond, meeting with their mentees outside of regular weekly DREAM programming. We don’t track all of these extra programming endeavors, but one example is a mentor taking his mentee to his first Red Sox game.

Mentor Development:  DREAMstock: On April 1st, the Boston DREAM office hosted the first Boston DREAMstock. The event was a great opportunity for mentors from the Boston DREAM programs to come together and meet for the first time, discuss best practices within their programs, and plan future collaborations which we can’t wait to see happen. The day included workshops on mentee involvement in fundraising, planning with a purpose, behavior management, and accessing resident services in DREAM communities. Twenty mentors, and a number of great DREAM Alumni and committee members attended the afternoon. Thank you to BU for donating space, and Ben and Jerry’s for donating ice cream.  Elections: At the last meeting of the year the mentors elected new people for the positions of co-chair, treasurer and secretary. It is great to see mentors excited to step-up into leadership positions in DREAM. Community Collaboration:

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Boston Marathon Project: In collaboration with City Counselor Tito Jackson’s office, DREAM developed a project in which a local Boston youth would train and run the 116th Boston Marathon and would raise money for DREAM and for a college scholarship for themselves. After months of training we are excited to congratulate Tucker Gaye on his successful completion of the Boston Marathon on April 16th.

Movie Afternoon: Annie Pelissier, MPV Resident Service Coordinator, and I showed an afternoon movie in the community room of 122 DeWitt Drive for Madison Park youth on April 19th during school vacation week.

Dudley/Roxbury Corridor Safety Task Force: I attended the Dudley/Roxbury Corridor Safety Task Force meeting on April 23rd at the Mission Main Community Room.

DREAM Office:  Summer Community Interns: We finalized our hires for our 2012 Summer Community Interns. We are excited to have 4 amazing college students working with DREAM and running programming each DREAM community this summer.  Massachusetts Promise Fellow Hiring: We are currently accepting applications for our next AmeriCorps Massachusetts Promise Fellow, if you know anyone who would make a great candidate please let us know, and direct them to http://masspromisefellows.org/openpositions.html#dream Keep DREAMing!

Chad Butt, Boston Programs Director