dreamprogram.org The DREAM Program @DREAMprogram
The Village Mentoring Organization
Pine Meadow/John Graham DREAM Quarterly Report March 2013-May 2013 Greetings from DREAM! This spring held a lot of exciting events for Pine Meadow/John Graham Court mentors and youth including an overnight culminating experience, the Teen Identity Retreat, and the Alumni Welcoming Event for graduating seniors. Please read below for more information about events and highlights for Pine Meadow/John Graham Court DREAM this quarter.
Highlights from the quarter include:
DREAMers celebrated a successful year of DREAMing big with an overnight culminating experience that included trips to a high ropes course and Lake Dunmore. The Pine Meadow/John Graham group received a grant of $350 from the Alumni Council to help cover the cost of the weekend. For the final Friday of the year, mentees, mentors, and families gathered for a celebratory barbecue. Mentor Simran Sabharwal successfully connected DREAM with the Wonnacott Raise the Volume concert at Middlebury College featuring Anya Marina. The show raised around $700 to help support summer transportation costs! Twenty-five DREAM teens attended the Teen Identity Retreat hosted by the Vermont DREAM staff. Teens explored Burlington’s Church Street Marketplace, discussed healthy relationships, and practiced hula hooping. Seven Pine Meadow/John Graham mentors were welcomed into DREAM’s Alumni Organization. Pine Meadow/John Graham Court DREAM youth are looking forward to this summer’s in-community programs run by DREAM intern, Kelsey Follansbee.
Weekly Programming with Children:
The DREAMers spent one very beautiful Friday afternoon frolicking in the Organic Garden, playing tag and helping garden interns with planting. The group teamed up with the Middlebury College yoga club for a Friday of positive energy. The DREAMers explored their musical sides with a drum circle. The group went out to a delectable dinner together at Flatbread during one Friday. Ice skating, an ever popular adventure for Pine Meadow/John Graham DREAMers, was one exciting Friday. One energetic Friday was spent playing a (safer) version of rugby. The group explored Middlebury campus while going on a sculpture scavenger hunt. The final Friday of the year was spent with a community barbecue and families gathered to share food and celebrate an exciting and successful year of DREAM!
Office: 30 Community Drive, South Burlington, VT | Mail: P.O. Box 361, Winooski, VT 05404 │ (802) 338-8979 | info@dreamprogram.org
Special Events for Children and Mentors:
Twenty-five teens attended DREAM’s annual Teen Identity Retreat in Burlington. This year’s retreat featured sessions on healthy relationships, a reflection on DREAM’s Theory of Change for older mentees, and a hula hooping tutorial lead by DREAM alumna, Nicole Stevenson. Pine Meadow/John Graham DREAMers enjoyed an overnight culminating this month that was partially funded with a $350 grant from the Alumni Council. The weekend included a trip to Northern Lights Rock and Ice, where the group challenged themselves on high ropes elements. They also visited Lake Dunmore for a day of swimming in unseasonably hot weather.
Capacity Building and Fundraising:
DREAM all-star and mentor Simran Sabharwal connected DREAM with an annual benefit concert at Middlebury College called Wonnacott’s Raise the Volume Concert (this year featuring Alpenglow and Anya Marina). Each year, Middlebury College selects a non-profit to receive proceeds from the event. This year, DREAM was chosen as the beneficiary with Simran’s advocacy, and nearly $700 was raised!
Camp:
This quarter, Camp DREAM was once again happy to host volunteers from IBM through the United Way’s Days of Caring program. Volunteers worked on clearing trails, installing new trail signs, building an awning for the porch connected to our DREAM bus that has been converted into a kitchen, and sprucing up Camp’s drainage systems.
Alumni Involvement:
This year, DREAM’s Alumni Organization welcomed 73 new members from 11 local programs across Vermont and Massachusetts. Welcoming events were hosted for each Local Program to congratulate both mentees and mentors as they graduate from high school and college. Seven Pine Meadow/John Graham Court mentors were inducted into the Alumni Organization this season with a s’mores party at the Organic Garden on the Middlebury College campus. The Pine Meadow/John Graham DREAMers were awarded a grant of $350 from the DREAM Alumni Council to help fund their overnight culminating trip at the end of this semester to Northern Lights Rock and Ice in Essex, Vermont! DREAM staff and co-chair Leah Robinson met with members of the United Way for a grant allocation meeting this quarter. This year’s Teen Identity Retreat was a success due in part to all of the support from DREAM’s alumni volunteers: Paul Espina, Nicole Stevenson, Claudine Nkurinziza, and Susie Silva. A group of DREAM alumni are running in a RAGNAR relay race in West Virginia to support DREAM’s expansion efforts in Washington D.C.
Office:
For this year’s DREAM ‘sprinter’ (Spring-Winter) retreat, Vermont staff headed down to the Boston Office. Discussion topics included incorporating Results Based Accountability, DREAM expansion, and redesigning DREAM’s annual mentor training event, DREAMstock. This quarter, Camp DREAM welcomed back Birchwood mentor, Matt Karkut as the Adventure Program Coordinator. This May, DREAM hosted its first combined staff, alumni council, and board retreat at Camp DREAM. Discussion topics included incorporating Results Based Accountability, staff and board structure, and coordinating calendars for the upcoming year. The Vermont DREAM office recently participated in Unbridled Innovation Day, taking the full day off from regularly scheduled work tasks in order to research, interview, learn and explore the next frontier of DREAM growth. Among the questions we sought to answer were: how can DREAM reduce its carbon footprint without reducing its impact? Are car dealerships willing to help out a local nonprofit with its transportation costs? How do youth from affordable housing neighborhoods compare to other peer groups in terms of high school graduation rates? And, how does obesity affect the children and families in DREAM, both short- and long-term? Vermont staff had a very successful Adventure Teaching Day. Adventure Teaching Days are an opportunity to continue to grow, learn, and bond as an organization. The discussion topics included how to support mentee who are being bullied or bullying others and codifying orientation materials for future offices. Staff then headed down to the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center for an afternoon of sailing. This quarter DREAM launched its new database through Salesforce. This new platform will allow staff to more effectively monitor outcomes for DREAM youth as well as mentoring relationships and attendance at office lead events. Summer hiring for DREAM is wrapping up for the season with nearly all positions filled. In June, DREAM will welcome 16 summer interns who will organize in-community programs and 6 camp staff who will run summer camp programming. DREAM said goodbye to Boston Program Director Chad Butt. Chad has been a staple in the DREAM office for over 8 years and we wish him all the best in his new role as Executive Director of Mobius, the state-wide mentoring organization in Vermont.
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 going to: http://dreamprogram.org/mentor-program/vermont/localprogram-reports. DREAM big, Sarah Caliendo Program Director scaliendo@dreamprogram.org 802.338.8979