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The Village Mentoring Organization
The Madison Park Village DREAM Update December 2013
The Madison Park Village program had an exciting end to their semester. Additionally, the mentors began developing plans to strengthen their program for the Spring Semester. DREAM Programming:
Programming had ended for the semester-we are all looking forward to starting up again in early January!
Program Development:
Asha Carter is no longer with DREAM. Jason Desrosier, Program Director, will be supporting the Madison Park Village Local Program moving forward. Please do not hesitate to contact Jason at Jason@dreamprogram.org if you have any questions.
Elections: The mentors held their elections for the spring semester. Officers will be: o Returning Co-chair: Brian Doyle o Incoming Co-chair: Freda Spencer o Secretary: Lauren Schenk o Treasurer: Matt Wilen o Fundraising/Programming Chair: Angie Huang o Recruitment Chair: Andrew Horowitz
New mentors and mentees: The new mentors are almost completely background checked. New mentee recruitment has begun and will continue through the mentor’s winter break.
DREAM Office: Teen Program: This month, we started outlining our teen program. Katie and I will be meeting with all of our teens and mentors of teens in January and February to gather input about what they would like to see out of this program.
Longwood Symphony Orchestra Benefit Concert: The LSO concert, which was held on December 7th, went extremely well and was enjoyed by all attendees. Mentor and mentee matches from the Madison Park/Northeastern University Local Program, the Orchard Gardens/Boston University Local Program, and the Somerville Housing Authority/Tufts University Local Program attended the concert. For most of our youth, this was the first
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classical concert they have ever attended. We want to say thanks to the LSO, our sponsor UBS, all who attended, and those who sponsored a mentor/mentee match to join us.
DREAMstock: DREAM staff has been diligently planning DREAMstock, DREAM’s annual mentor training, which is scheduled for Saturday, February 22nd. All mentors from the five Boston programs will be expected to attend for a day of workshops and networking. Workshop topics will include: cultural competency, age-specific mentoring, building and sustaining relationships with families, and purposeful programming.
South Boston Local Program: University of Massachusetts (UMass) Boston has been selected as the partner school for our new community in South Boston: Old Colony. Mentor recruitment will continue when students return mid-January.
Annual Appeals: DREAM is in the midst of both its Annual and Alumni Appeals. It is an exciting time of year when we reach out to our supporters and invite them to contribute to help support the great work we are doing.
This has been a really exciting Fall Semester and we cannot wait to bring more youth into DREAM and match the new mentors in the spring. The Madison Park Village Program has made a lot of progress this semester and it will be exciting to see its continued growth in the spring! Keep DREAMing! Jason Desrosier Program Director Jason@dreamprogram.org